Summary

Philosopher Moti Gorin asks what gender medicine for young people is meant to achieve. The original Dutch treatment plan aimed to improve young people's mental and physical health. But reviews in England, Sweden and Finland found the evidence for those benefits is weak. Some ethicists, notably Florence Ashley, now argue that blockers, hormones and surgery are justified by patients' wishes for their bodies and their right to choose, not by health gains. Gorin argues this clashes with medicine's duty to do no harm. A patient's right to choose means choosing between options doctors can justify, not demanding any treatment they want. He concludes that serious treatments for minors need good evidence that benefits outweigh risks. This is a philosophical argument, not new data. He admits it mostly argues against a view, and the journal published several critical replies.

Key findings

• Le linee guida statunitensi sostengono bloccanti della pubertà, ormoni cross-sex e chirurgia per i giovani con disagio di genere, ma Inghilterra, Svezia e Finlandia hanno fatto marcia indietro dopo che le revisioni hanno trovato prove deboli di beneficio.
• Gli studi olandesi originali che hanno dato avvio alla transizione dei giovani avevano gravi difetti: nessun gruppo di confronto, un modo viziato di misurare il disagio di genere e pazienti molto diversi da quelli di oggi.
• Alcuni eticisti sostengono che i giovani dovrebbero avere un diritto a questi trattamenti basato sui propri obiettivi corporei e sulla libertà di scelta, senza prove di benefici per la salute mentale e persino senza una diagnosi.
• Gorin sostiene che ciò contrasti con il dovere fondamentale della medicina di non arrecare danno: desiderare un cambiamento del corpo non è una ragione sufficiente per un trattamento rischioso senza prove che giovi alla salute.
• Dice che i paesi differiscono in parte perché valutano le prove in modo diverso (accurate revisioni sistematiche contro sintesi di esperti più approssimative) e in parte perché non sono d'accordo sul fatto che la medicina debba migliorare la salute o realizzare obiettivi di identità.

Abstract

The original “Dutch Protocol”—the treatment model comprised of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery—was intended to improve the mental and physical health of pediatric patients experiencing distress over their sexed bodies. Consequently, both researchers and clinicians have couched eligibility for treatment and measures of treatment efficacy in terms of the interventions’ effects on outcomes such as gender dysphoria, depression, anxiety, and suicide. However, recent systematic reviews have concluded that the scientific evidence supporting these interventions is uncertain, leading to significant international differences in what treatments are offered to youth. Against this backdrop, a different argumentative approach has emerged in support of gender-affirming care. This approach appeals not to reductions in patient morbidity or mortality but to patient autonomy, where medical intervention is pursued as a means to the satisfaction of a patient's “embodiment goals.” In this article, I raise objections to autonomy-based justifications for pediatric gender-affirming care, concluding that these arguments misunderstand the place of autonomy in clinical decision-making and, consequently, put patients at risk of medical harm.

Conclusion

This article argues that the autonomy-based view—according to which medical interventions for gender dysphoria in youth ought to be guided by patients' embodiment goals rather than measurable health outcomes—is misguided, as it conflicts with medicine's long-standing commitment to nonmaleficence. The author contends that transition-related medical treatments for youth are justified only if there is good evidence of a favorable risk-benefit profile in terms of measurable health outcomes; an adolescent's desire to obtain particular sex characteristics is not sufficient to establish a right to such interventions. The author critiques consequentialist arguments (including those appealing to gender euphoria, creative transfiguration, dehumanization, and social marginalization) and autonomy-based arguments (including the right to an open future and an analogy to reproductive healthcare), finding them all insufficient to justify departure from the traditional medical aim of protecting and promoting patient health. The practical upshot is that, absent compelling reasons to abandon this commitment, the medical profession should reaffirm that serious medical interventions require strong evidence of a favorable risk-benefit profile for treating physical and psychiatric morbidity and relieving suffering. The author acknowledges the limitation that this article is largely negative and does not fully articulate a positive philosophical account of health or the aims of medicine, but hopes to have surfaced conceptual and moral tensions in contemporary pediatric gender medicine.