From Clinical to Judicial Decision-Making, and Back Again in Bell v Tavistock? Preparing for the Legacy of Court Involvement in Gender Care for Minors

Horowicz, Edmund ORCID: 0000-0002-7948-1649, Garland, Fae, Dimopoulos, Georgina and Taylor-Sands, Michelle (2023) From Clinical to Judicial Decision-Making, and Back Again in Bell v Tavistock? Preparing for the Legacy of Court Involvement in Gender Care for Minors. Medical Law International, 23 (3). pp. 209-240.

	Text Judicial_Legacy_of_Bell_10_May_23.docx - Author Accepted Manuscript Download (77kB)
	Text Judicial_Legacy_of_Bell_10_May_23.docx - Unspecified Download (76kB)

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09685332231180037

Abstract

Gender care for minors in England has recently been scrutinised by the courts and is currently undergoing significant transformation, shifting away from the long-standing centralised service provision model. Alongside this change, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health has recently published Version 8 of its Standard of Care, which introduces radical changes that shift away from age restrictions on medical interventions. This article considers what role judicial decision-making could, or should, play in this new era of healthcare provision for adolescent gender care, especially since Bell v Tavistock. Despite Bell seemingly returning decision-making to clinicians, patients and their families, we argue that the decision has left the door open in a way that threatens the autonomy and rights of gender diverse children. Through a comparative analysis with Australian case law, we demonstrate how and why uncertainties left by Bell may in fact lead to continued court involvement. Finally, we suggest several pragmatic responses that may mitigate the risk of unnecessary and time-consuming court involvement.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	11 May 2023 15:48
Last Modified:	26 Sep 2023 08:27
DOI:	10.1177/09685332231180037
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3170296