Kemi Badenoch slams puberty blockers trial

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party, has called the proposed puberty blockers trial ‘unethical’.

The former Equalities Minister has joined a chorus of voices calling for the £11 million trial to be stopped, amid concerns it will harm children and be used as a ‘back door’ for gender-confused young people to access the now-banned treatment.

A previous trial was implemented by the controversial Tavistock clinic in 2011. The research was widely condemned for having lacked parental consent, supressing results, and taking nine years to publish findings.

‘Irreversible drugs’

Badenoch said: “Puberty blockers have never been certified as a safe or effective treatment for children with gender distress, and it is hard to believe there could ever be an ethical way of trialling these irreversible drugs for this purpose.”

She reaffirmed the Cass Review’s conclusion that “a holistic approach” was required for treating children.

However, in her review, consultant paediatrician Baroness Hilary Cass had suggested a clinical trial of puberty blockers, and despite harbouring concerns about the safety of the drugs, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said he will not intervene to halt the trial.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said Streeting had “been crystal clear about the need for children’s healthcare to be evidence-led”.

‘The world is watching’

Dr Michael Biggs, the associate professor of sociology at the University of Oxford, warned that the upcoming trial could become a repeat of the Tavistock scandal, “this time with even more children being subjected to an unethical experiment”.

Co-Chairman of the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender Dr Louise Irvine criticised the Health Research Authority (HRA), saying the previous trial “failed to do its job”, and that “the supervision, regulation and accountability process by the HRA was totally inadequate”.

This time, she said, “the world is watching”.

Shadow Health Minister Dr Caroline Johnson, also a consultant paediatrician, explained that the trial would be “watched like a hawk” to ensure that “everything is done absolutely by the book”.

‘Medically unnecessary’

Keith Jordan, from the parent support group Our Duty, urged the HRA to “act to protect the vulnerable, not rubber-stamp another unethical experiment”.

A spokesman for Bayswater Support Group, which is helping 600 families with gender-confused children, raised concerns over the initial Tavistock scandal and said: “the whole process appears at risk of being replicated, with more children being knowingly harmed”.

The group called it “inconceivable” that the NHS was “poised to re-open a back door to further vulnerable children taking medically unnecessary and potentially irreversible drugs”.

‘Guinea pigs’

The Telegraph called for the trial to be blocked, saying: “There is a growing body of literature on the effects of giving puberty blockers to children, and a known risk profile associated with their use. There seems to be little justification for this new trial, even if it would be ideologically convenient for progressive activists.

“Instead of pouring millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money into this project, it would surely be better if the Government were to follow up on the outcomes of those treated prior to the ban.”

It warned: “As things stand, we appear to be preparing to treat another generation of children as guinea pigs.”