A Statement on Protecting Children from Harm
Henri Lehmann, The Confessional, (detail), 1872.
A remarkable document authored by the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), Doctors Protecting Children Declaration, affirms what should be an evident truth, that transgender interventions on children are harmful. The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) and many other groups and individuals are co-signers. It calls for an immediate stop to “the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex. Instead, these organizations should recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often predispose to and accompany gender dysphoria.”
Part of the impetus for this declaration was the Cass Review that came out on behalf of the National Health Service (NHS) in England in April 2024. It confirmed the decision taken in the United Kingdom and many European countries to re-evaluate and suspend transgender puberty blockers and surgeries for minors. More and more studies are showing there are no benefits to transgender interventions on children. The ACPeds declaration adds: “Puberty blockers permanently disrupt physical, cognitive, emotional and social development.” Nevertheless, major medical associations in the USA, like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, continue to aggressively promote and defend what they call “gender-affirming care.”
A professor of bioethics once told me that certain topics were not worthy of sustained bioethical debate because the answer was so abundantly clear that analyzing the pros and cons was a waste of time. The example he used was the direct abortion of preborn babies. Transgender hormones and surgeries for children is another example of this same idea, I believe. It should be ethically obvious that adolescents and young children do not have the psychological or emotional maturity to make major life-changing decisions, and that their parents should not allow their children to grow up on a medical pathway to lifelong drugs and surgeries. The tremendous inner pain some people go through, especially during the adolescent years, is difficult and requires understanding but generally resolves itself if one waits rather than intervening. If an intervention is needed, it should also be obvious that psychological treatments are the correct approach.
There is a need to face up to the fact that gender ideology depends on the completely unscientific claim that a person’s sex is only “assigned at birth.” The truth is we are male or female due to our DNA, our objective genetic makeup and the human person is created as a unity of body and soul. There can be genetic anomalies and rare disorders of sexual development that afflict some people, but the idea that a person who is clearly genetically male or female can really be a member of the opposite sex due to strong inner feelings or beliefs turns objective reality on its head. Pope Francis has spoken out on numerous occasions to denounce gender theory and its associated ideology. He said it is “one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations.”
The ACPeds declaration does a good job pointing out how The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is not following the principles of evidence-based medicine. WPATH is an influential body, but it has been exposed as improvising its medical interventions and in effect performing pseudoscientific experiments on children and adults. The accusation that WPATH is really an activist group masquerading as a professional organization was made by an association called Environmental Progress based on leaked internal WPATH files. It is indeed worrying to hear about individuals with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, being allowed to give “informed consent” to cross-sex hormones and surgeries.
It is notable that many of those who suffer from gender dysphoria, i.e., distress resulting from a feeling that their gender identity differs from their biological sex, have severe underlying mental health issues that really should be the focus of treatment. In bioethics, we know that informed consent is a bedrock principle of medical ethics. If a person struggles with mental illness, he can be declared incompetent to make decisions for himself. Because of the psychological immaturity of children, they too are not considered competent to make medical decisions. Nevertheless, WPATH, it seems, does not let these crucial ethical safeguards get in the way of their agenda of “transitioning” people.
The phenomenal growth of transgender activism and gender-confused young people in recent years took many of us by surprise. Now it seems that common sense is coming back. There are times when an ideology expands with frightening speed like a tsunami that does terrible damage, but then recedes back into the ocean. The ACPeds declaration looks like it will be part of the puncturing of the artificial transgender ballon. It has already succeeded beyond the expectations of its authors. Dr. Jill Simmons, President of ACPeds, reports that the document has been shared over 52 million times on social media and thousands have been signing on to it from all over the world. There should be a broad social and professional consensus that gender transitioning should not be affirmed as something positive for children. Hopefully, it will be possible to spare children the dangers and harms of gender theory and its practices soon in the United States as is the case in most of the world.
Joseph Meaney received his PhD in bioethics from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. His doctoral program was founded by the late Elio Cardinal Sgreccia and linked to the medical school and Gemelli teaching hospital. His dissertation topic was Conscience and Health Care: A Bioethical Analysis. Dr. Meaney earned his master’s in Latin American studies, focusing on health care in Guatemala, from the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from the University of Dallas with a BA in history and a concentration in international studies. The Benedict XVI Catholic University in Trujillo, Peru, awarded Dr. Meaney an honorary visiting professorship. The University of Dallas bestowed on him an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters in 2022.