Detransitioner Keira Bell has been denied permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in her attempt to protect children from being prescribed experimental transgender drugs.
Bell approached the Supreme Court last year, after the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling that it was “highly unlikely” children 13 and under could ever genuinely consent to hormone blockers, and “very doubtful” 14 and 15-year-olds could do so.
The Supreme Court decided that her case raised “no arguable point of law”.
‘Murky practices’
Bell was prescribed puberty blockers at 16 years-of-age by The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs England’s only NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS). She subsequently underwent irreversible surgery to appear male.
Although disappointed at the Supreme Court’s decision, Bell said she was “delighted at what has been achieved as a result of this case”.
She said: “We have shone a light on the murky practices of one of the greatest medical scandals of the modern era. Practice and policy has changed as a result.”
We have shone a light on the murky practices of one of the greatest medical scandals of the modern era. Practice and policy has changed as a result.
‘Failing children’
Last month, it was reported that the Health Secretary is set to order an investigation into services at the Tavistock clinic.
An ally of Sajid Javid told The Times newspaper that the Secretary of State for Health believes the gender clinic is “failing children” who are gender-confused.
An interim report published by The Cass Review, an ongoing independent assessment of clinical practice at GIDS led by Dr Hilary Cass, found that a “fundamentally different service model is needed”.
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