Reforming the Law on Consent to Medical Treatment for Trans Youth: A Renewed Call for Legislative Intervention

Steph Jowett; Georgina Dimopoulos; Fiona Kelly

doi:10.3390/laws11040056

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Reforming the Law on Consent to Medical Treatment for Trans Youth: A Renewed Call for Legislative Intervention

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Reforming the Law on Consent to Medical Treatment for Trans Youth: A Renewed Call for Legislative Intervention

Steph Jowett, Georgina Dimopoulos and Fiona Kelly

Laws, Vol.11(4), 56

14/07/2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/laws11040056

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Abstract

Government & Law

Law

Social Sciences

children’s consent

trans youth

Gillick competence

gender-affirming care

Australian trans youth seeking medical treatment for gender dysphoria can encounter significant legal barriers to healthcare. Legal requirements for obtaining valid consent to gender-affirming care, first established in 2004, mean that an application to the Family Court is required in many cases before treatment can be provided. The development of Australian law concerning consent for the medical treatment of trans youth has been slow, haphazard, and remains incomplete. The Family Court process has been found to be damaging to trans youth and their families. There is widespread agreement that the law needs reform, even more so since the 2020 decision in Re: Imogen. This article explores the implications of the decision in Re: Imogen for trans youth and their families and raises possible models for reform. It starts by providing the background to Re: Imogen and explaining the current legal position. It then explores why the law needs to be reformed, highlighting the inconsistent approach to competency in Australian law and the harm the current law does to trans youth. Building on critiques of the law in this area, it reviews various options for law reform and suggests an optimal model.

Details

Title: Reforming the Law on Consent to Medical Treatment for Trans Youth: A Renewed Call for Legislative Intervention
Creators: Steph Jowett - Queensland University of Technology
Georgina Dimopoulos - Swinburne University of Technology
Fiona Kelly - La Trobe University
Publication Details: Laws, Vol.11(4), 56
Publisher: Mdpi
Number of pages: 20
Identifiers: 991013093611702368
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business, Law and Arts
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Reforming the Law on Consent to Medical Treatment for Trans Youth: A Renewed Call for Legislative Intervention

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