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Today, Jesse Singal wrote an opinion for the New York Times where he argued that Trump defunding youth gender research was a bad thing, despite the terrible research coming out of that part of science. He thinks that reform is in order, not slash-and-burn practices. In my opinion, there is definitely enough research out there by now that you can confidently release something like a Cass Report without anything new. Certainly, funding bad actors makes no sense, but to me, reform is little gain, and even a good new study must follow around minors that have gone through the unethical transgender science grinder.
It reminds me of an (unpopular) opinion Trace shared the other day on Twitter regarding the axing of funds for museums and libraries. Even if anthropology is 99% leftist, well, the institutions belong to those who show up, so right wingers just need to get in there and fix it themselves. While I appreciated that stance as it related to conservative law organizations, and as it related to Twitter when left-wingers were leaving the site en masse, I find it pretty distasteful to give up anthropology to positive feedback loops, and let our history become a mockery when it is within one's power to just raze it.
Deus Ex took a look at this perspective. Spoilers for Deus Ex:General Carter, after the UNATCO plot is exposed, decides to stay within the organization, because institutions are only as good as the people that comprise them. Later in the game, you see him in the Vandenburg compound. He has given up on his idea of reform and joined the resistance.
I'm going to guess most of this forum disagrees with Trace and Jesse on this matter in pretty much the same way that I do. Can you name any areas in government or other organizations where you do agree with them?
It's not a wonder you don't care about reforming the science to have evidence based results on if trans healthcare for minors has positive or negative results for patients if you've already made up your mind that it's unethical off other grounds.
Science should not be
Step 1: Have a view established off something else Step 2: Only accept evidence, research, and experts that agrees with the pre-established view and not the ones that disagree. Step 3: Declare the issue done with and stop further research.
Running these experiments is itself a violation of the ethics of human experimentation because, as detransitioners would be able to tell you, it can't be opted out of.
The same argument applies for signing up for experimental heart surgery.
I am fairly sure experimental heart surgery isn't conducted on children without their parent's informed consent, and a refusal to subject children to experimental heart surgery isn't a basis for taking children away from the parents.
That is an entirely different objection, and at least in the UK, doctors have the ability to override parental decisions if deemed in the best interest of parents, especially if the child agrees. And the definition of child here is 16 and below, no line in the sand, as long as the doctors think they're able to understand the risks and benefits.
In less politicized contexts, if not heart surgery, kids can be taken away if their parents are doing an egregiously bad job at handling their health.
This is all true, and for all the many failings of British governance, things seem to work fine here.
I make no comment on whether or not gender affirming care is something that should be treated in this manner, only that the previous standard suggested was poorly formed.
Indeed, in the UK we admit that capability to make informed decisions does not start at some arbitrary birthday but is more fluid and depends on maturity of a person. This is mostly about some minor treatments such as morning-after-pill or HPV vaccine which is for their own benefit. I expect that a healthcare professional would be more strict in cases when a minor is asking for treatment that has great potential of harm. Then it would go to the court and the court most likely would say that wanting a treatment that harms is the evidence that the person does not have the capability to make an informed decision or something like that :)
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And your analogy for it being poorly formed was poor.
Most analogies are imperfect, few things are perfectly isomorphic to other things. I stand by mine as relevant and useful.
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