Former MSP, Robin Harper OBE, and Joanna Cherry KC MP have written jointly to Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer calling for the urgent re-design of services for gender questioning children in Scotland and the for the use of puberty blockers to end.
The Edinburgh South West MP said: “Gender questioning young people in Scotland deserve individualised care. As the Cass Review notes, this should include screening for neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder, and a mental health assessment.
“The prescription of puberty blockers places gender questioning children and young people on a medicalised pathway which has life-long implications. The NHS in Scotland has been slow to react to emerging evidence of the harm of these practices and all too often relies on international best practice as a catch all to avoid difficult conversations.
“The practice may have become internationalised, but it is clearly far from best. Many other European countries are currently reviewing or have reviewed their practices in this area. The publication of the Cass Review today should be an urgent wakeup call that services for children and young people must be urgently re-designed and puberty blockers removed from use in Scotland.”
The letter today follows a previous letter to Prof Jason Leitch in August 2022 which highlighted the findings of the interim Cass review and called on NHS Scotland to take immediate action.
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
