Increasing numbers of transgender children are using a new, free national legal service to help them access vital hormone treatments. But there are mounting calls for the Federal Government to remove the courts from such medical decisions.
We asked to comment on the leagal impediments Dr Fiona Kelly Deputy Director of Centre for Health Law and Society, La Trobe Law School who backs up the redundancy of the Family Court to approve hormone treatment.
Dr Kelly:
"I definitely support the removal of the court requirement. At the moment it’s causing a great deal of distress for those who go through it. And in all of the cases that have ever been heard by the Family Court not one of them has the court not approved the treatment. It seems to be an expensive delaying step for what the doctors have already concluded which is that the child should receive the treatment".
The child should undergo an assessment by medical professionals before they can go to the Family Court.
And the actual hearing might not happen for the next six months.
Dr Kelly:
"That usually involves a team of 5 medical professionals including 2 psychologists who need to sign off on the child’s competency to have the treatment, there will be an endocrinologist to speak to the child about reproductive issues and then the actual treating physician as well".
Dr Kelly says that the Family Court only assesses the previous conclusions and gives the permission to commence the treatment:
"The family court has really one decision to make, following a decision called Re Jami in 2013 the Family Court now only determines whether the child is competent to consent to the treatment themselves. So they will have a recommendation from the psychologist about whether the child fully understands the treatment, the irreversible aspects of the treatment and obviously that they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria".
