
This is a specially-curated reading list for paying subscribers. It contains my personal selections and summaries of the week’s best articles on the topic of sex and gender, free speech, and other related topics. Happy reading!
How Not to Regulate Pediatric Gender Medicine | Leor Sapir & Colin Wright
For City Journal, Mannhattan Institute Fellows Leor Sapir and Colin Wright highlighted some not-so-helpful Bills that conservative legislators have been putting forward to combat the excessed of pediatric “gender affirming” care. While these legislators are morally correct in their push to curtail these treatments for minors, they are often overbroad in their application and contain aspects that are counterproductive. The authors highlight three “mistaken efforts” and offer suggestions to strengthen future Bills.
The fundamental justification for any state intervention into private decisions, even decisions as intimate as medical ones, should be the regulated entity’s unwillingness or inability to exercise discretion responsibly. When it comes to the intersection of gender and medicine, the American medical establishment has earned the distrust of regulators—and of the public at large. Enter state Republicans. Fired up by what they correctly perceive to be one of the worst medical scandals in American history, many are poised to act in the coming months. But good intentions don’t guarantee good results, and it’s important for those advocating medically and ethically sound public policy to call out mistakes on both sides of this debate.
Ultimately, the authors suggest that a more constructive approach to bans should be ideally limited to minors, be punishable by civil rather than criminal penalties, ensure that minors already on hormones may continue as part of a research program, and make it easier for harmed patients to pursue malpractice lawsuits.
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