B

Baroness Deech (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 25 June 2026

Debate

Puberty Blockers Trial: Consent

Contribution

My Lords, how can the Minister justify the age of 11 for a puberty blocker trial? A child under 16 cannot consent to sex or to medical treatment if they are not Gillick competent. They cannot join the Army, smoke, take drugs or alcohol, or even watch social media soon. We condemn FGM, but here is something much more profound. I ask your Lordships to think back to when you were 11—did you understand what it meant to be a woman or a man? The children in this trial are utterly unable to give meaningful consent. A trial of just two years will tell us nothing. We need retrospective evidence from those who have already taken these drugs. It is only when they reach middle age that those experimented-on children might reflect on whether it would have been better to have been fertile, to have had fulfilling, intimate relationships and to have been themselves. I predict litigation on the scale of infected blood. The first principle of medical ethics is, “Do no harm”. This trial cannot avoid doing harm. I think parents will join me in asking the Minister to stop it.

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