Queensland doctors raise concerns about transgender surgery for kids
A group of Queensland doctors are questioning whether children have the ability to make decisions about gender reassignment surgery.
The Australian Medical Association Queensland, composed of 9600 doctors, has called for a host of practitioner groups to come together and write new national treatment guidelines.
They say they support the concerns raised by branch member Philip Morris, who has questioned whether children have the ability to make decisions about life-changing hormonal treatment or surgery.
Queensland Senator Amanda Stoker tells Ben Fordham she’s launched her own petition to take a stand against what she calls “dangerous and radical ideas”.
“I support the lives of adults to live however they want to, so long as they don’t harm anyone else. And if that means they want to be living as a transgender person, that’s fine.
“But when we are talking about doing life-changing, irreversible medical procedures on children who don’t have the capacity to fully understand what they’re doing… we should hesitate and we should wait before we start handing out hormone drugs that can permanently sterilise a child.”
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Image: Getty/Drew Angerer