High Court refuses to stop puberty blocker trial despite child safety concerns

NHS England’s puberty blocker trial will go ahead, the High Court has confirmed, after refusing an emergency injunction to halt it.

A legal challenge against the trial was brought by the Bayswater Support Group, which represents parents of trans-identified children, psychotherapist James Esses, and detransitioner Keira Bell. They argued that the trial is unlawful but their attempt to bring a judicial review was today denied.

King’s College London has been given funding of £10.7 million for its ‘Pathways’ project, which includes the controversial trial. Puberty-blocking drugs are set to be given to children as young as eleven from 1 August if they present with “gender incongruence”. They will be monitored for two years using brain scans and other tests.

Antithesis of safeguarding

James Esses, one of the claimants, said: “I’m deeply saddened to announce that the High Court has refused permission for us to proceed to a full Judicial Review hearing in our pursuit to block the deeply unethical and highly dangerous puberty blockers trial.

“This judgment does not negate the serious and avoidable harm that will be caused if this trial is allowed to proceed. Vulnerable children should never be used as guinea pigs in medical experimentation that may lead them down a path towards irreversible physiological and emotional damage, including infertility.

“This trial is the antithesis of child safeguarding and I will now be consulting with my lawyers regarding the possibility of an appeal.”

Unethical

Keira Bell, who had a double mastectomy after being on puberty blockers for several years and then came to regret her decisions, called the result “a tragedy”.

She said: “I know first-hand how much this process breaks you. My story and the story of many others since should have been a big enough warning. A trial has already been conducted and the results were bleak.”

A spokesperson for Bayswater Support Group said it was “extremely disappointed” at the result, noting: “The Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki are supposed to ensure that children, who cannot consent for themselves, are only enrolled in trials that offer a realistic prospect of direct benefit and rest on a proper scientific foundation.

“They are not intended to permit experimental interventions on highly vulnerable children simply in order to discover whether benefit exists. We remain of the view that the PATHWAYS trial does not meet the legal and ethical thresholds required for research on children.”

Worrying precedent

The founder of Transgender Trend, Stephanie Davies-Arai, warned the trial would ‘shatter’ public confidence in the medical profession: “This trial introduces a new low safety bar and sets a worrying precedent for the protection of children in future medical trials.”

Caroline Farrow, from campaign group CitizenGo, said: “This is a bitterly disappointing decision, but it does not make the profound ethical and safeguarding concerns surrounding this trial disappear.

“Puberty is a healthy and natural process, not a disease, and it is extraordinary that children may now be exposed to drugs which disrupt it when there is still no reliable evidence that doing so will benefit them.”