Bioethicist: ‘Scot Govt gender self-ID Bill puts vulnerable teens in harm’s way’

Scottish Government plans for 16-year-old sex-swaps risk harming young people with mental health problems, a leading bioethicist has warned.

Dr Calum MacKellar expressed concern that Holyrood’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee had backed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill without consulting biomedical experts.

The proposed legislation makes it much easier to change legal sex by removing the need for medical evidence and reducing the two-year waiting period to three months. It even extends ‘sex swaps’ to 16-year-olds.

‘Unprofessional’

Speaking on behalf of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SCHB), Dr MacKellar called the proposals “unreasonable” for failing to consider the “high prevalence of mental disorders” among young people who are confused about their gender.

He added: “If the Scottish parliament accepts this bill from the government, and removes the protection provided by a medical opinion before gender transitioning takes place, this will inevitably lead to some young Scottish persons being harmed.”

The SCHB said the Committee’s majority decision in favour of the proposals was “unreasonable, unprofessional and does not sufficiently address the biomedical evidence”.

Public opposition

The parliamentary Committee reported that it had received 10,800 individual responses to its “call for views” on gender recognition reform, of which the majority “disagreed with the overall purpose of the Bill”.

Concerns were raised by respondents about the protection of children and young people, particularly in relation to them making “life altering” decisions at such a young age that may involve sex-swap drugs and surgery.

And a recent poll of 1,018 voters in Scotland by Panelbase found that 62 per cent of participants opposed lowering the minimum age for sex-swaps to 16, with only 19 per cent in favour.

The plan to reduce the two-year waiting period to three months was backed by just one in four.