Informed consent
Can unconscious motives undermine transition consent?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
After the Tavistock litigation, the authors argue that accepting medical transition to promote well-being is in someone’s best interests only if their transgender self-diagnosis is correct — and unconscious forces can undermine autonomy in children and adults.
Key findings
Autonomy can be undermined by unconscious forces at any age. Best-interests endorsement of transition is biconditional on a correct self-diagnosis. Heterogeneity of transgender experience means definitions must be clarified before policy.
Methodology
They start from rising UK GID referrals, the December 2020 case of a patient who took puberty blockers at 16 then detransitioned, and capacity-to-consent worries. They then give a general argument about autonomy, well-being, and identity as subjective relative to the body.
Limitations
This is a normative argument, not a cohort of detransitioners. It does not estimate how often self-diagnosis is mistaken. The court case is context, not a new empirical finding of this paper.
How this study connects
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