General practitioner Dr Fiona Bisshop’s comment “Trans people should be able to go to their GP to get onto hormone therapy without a lengthy assessment period. It’s not brain surgery” does little to instil confidence into the safety and protection of the vulnerable.
Endocrinology and psychiatry are complex and highly specialised fields in medicine and
there remains a great deal of concern among relevant specialists as to the appropriateness of irreversible, sterilising and mutilating procedures in young people.
I believe that for a general practitioner to suggest that “it’s not brain surgery” in the face of the reality is trivialising a dreadful reality.
Further evidence of the way medicine and the counselling professions can be swept away by dangerous quackery and activism. I chose to resign from my professional counselling body PACFA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia) because they were censoring discussions on their private members-only forums regarding the harms of transitioning minors. Even the word “detransitioner” was unmentionable. Their explanation?: Such conversations made the “gender diverse” people on one of their internal bodies feel “unsafe”. When the delicate sensibilities of counsellors matter more than the minds, bodies and futures of vulnerable young people, something’s gone terribly wrong: the moral compass that should be operating has broken.
The inevitable class actions would predictably see widely spread nets, beyond individual practitioners and State gender clinics, to include bodies like AHPRA ( whose charter is to protect patients from dangerous or harmful treatments) and the relevant colleges. It might be seen to be in their interest to lobby State politicians to introduce legislation to protect minors ( “ mature”, or not!) from medical intervention. By ( finally) exhibiting some responsibility for duty of care, by encouraging appropriate legislation, such action could be relied upon , arguing to reduce their level of exposure to costs in class actions? It would be a long overdue response from those peak professional bodies, to gain legislative protection for future vulnerable minors, “ mature” ones and more!
General practitioner Dr Fiona Bisshop’s comment “Trans people should be able to go to their GP to get onto hormone therapy without a lengthy assessment period. It’s not brain surgery” does little to instil confidence into the safety and protection of the vulnerable.
Endocrinology and psychiatry are complex and highly specialised fields in medicine and
there remains a great deal of concern among relevant specialists as to the appropriateness of irreversible, sterilising and mutilating procedures in young people.
I believe that for a general practitioner to suggest that “it’s not brain surgery” in the face of the reality is trivialising a dreadful reality.
Further evidence of the way medicine and the counselling professions can be swept away by dangerous quackery and activism. I chose to resign from my professional counselling body PACFA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia) because they were censoring discussions on their private members-only forums regarding the harms of transitioning minors. Even the word “detransitioner” was unmentionable. Their explanation?: Such conversations made the “gender diverse” people on one of their internal bodies feel “unsafe”. When the delicate sensibilities of counsellors matter more than the minds, bodies and futures of vulnerable young people, something’s gone terribly wrong: the moral compass that should be operating has broken.
The inevitable class actions would predictably see widely spread nets, beyond individual practitioners and State gender clinics, to include bodies like AHPRA ( whose charter is to protect patients from dangerous or harmful treatments) and the relevant colleges. It might be seen to be in their interest to lobby State politicians to introduce legislation to protect minors ( “ mature”, or not!) from medical intervention. By ( finally) exhibiting some responsibility for duty of care, by encouraging appropriate legislation, such action could be relied upon , arguing to reduce their level of exposure to costs in class actions? It would be a long overdue response from those peak professional bodies, to gain legislative protection for future vulnerable minors, “ mature” ones and more!