Sydney,
Australia — A 13-year-old who believes she is a
girl born into a boy's body has won permission to undergo
the first stage of gender-changing treatment, with at
least four other NSW adolescents hoping to secure similar
rights.
The 13-year-old was
granted permission to undergo controversial
puberty-blocking treatment by the NSW Family Court
<http://www.familycourt.gov.au/>
three weeks ago, in an application supported by family
members.
The child's psychiatrist,
Dr Louise Newman, said they sought the court's permission
to use the hormones to delay pubertal changes because
they would prove distressing and unacceptable to the
child.
Lawyer Rachael Wallbank
<http://www.wallbanks.com/>,
herself a transsexual, said she presented the Family
Court with evidence that puberty-blockers were reversible
and could save the child from self-harm or suicide.
"All the medical
evidence, all the lived experience of people with
transsexualism like myself however, and all of the
post-treatment studies of children indicate that the
earlier the children with transsexualism receive this
treatment, the better their lives are, the happier they
are, the more they can actually live out a useful and
fulfilling life," she told ABC's Four Corners in a
program due to screen tomorrow night <http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2005/s1419343.htm>.
Ms Wallbank will soon
return to court seeking a precedent-setting order that
could remove the requirement for children to get Family
Court approval for sex-change treatment.
This could clear the way
for the four other teens to begin treatment without a
legal battle.
"In my view, once a court
hears more complete evidence about transsexualism ...
then the court will be more comfortable about allowing
the treatment of transsexualism in childhood to follow
... a medical course rather than imposing on parents of
these children the additional financial and mental burden
of having to take the child through a legal process to
enable that child to receive the treatment it needs," she
said.
The NSW court's recent
decision follows the Family Court ruling last year that
will allow Melbourne 13-year-old Alex, who was born a
girl but identifies as a boy, to change gender, beginning
with testosterone treatment at age 16.
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/family_ct/2004/297.html>
Professor Garry Warne, of
Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, believes a
compromise has to be reached on such treatments whereby
the courts agree to certain guidelines.
<http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2005/s1419526.htm>
He believes puberty
blockers shouldn't be given to children aged under 16
years, despite advocates saying they can be used from age
12 or 13.
"They're worried about
making the wrong decision and they're worried about it
coming back to bite them later on," Prof Warne said.
The NSW children's bids
to change sex are revealed as part of the Four Corners
report on new research into what determines gender, with
science now suggesting gender is dictated not just by
chromosomes but by "brain sex" -- a hard-wiring of the
brain before birth.
As many as 40,000
Australians don't have standard sex chromosomes.
