Making Decisions Before Puberty

A rising hot topic that has come about is transgendered children. Families are struggling with children that insist that they were born into the wrong body. Parents are torn between guiding their children’s mind towards ignoring their feelings and accepting their bodies or having their children undergo medical treatment to change their bodies. Parents are allowing their children as young as eleven to make these life altering decisions. Children should not be allowed to make decisions concerning their own medical treatment until they have reached well into puberty because only then can they truly understand their bodies.

            Having children wait until puberty to do any kind of medical treatment for gender identity problems is the best moral decision for parents. Rosin gives an example of a girl that struggled with wanting to be a boy but soon after she started her period her views changed and now she is living a happy life as a female (Rosin 562). This example shows how children’s minds change during puberty, so it’s crazy that parents would allow their pre-pubescent children to undergo such drastic changes to their bodies.

            Critics that disagree with waiting, bring up the fact that puberty blockers only work if you use them before a child goes through puberty.  Allowing your child to do this could potentially make things worse if they have a bad reaction to the drugs or undergo ridicule from peers due to the difference in their appearance. Having any kind of medical gender treatment is a major decision that many parents make due to the wishes of their children. The roles of parents are to protect their children and make the best decisions possible for them. Waiting until children are mature enough to know if they want these changes is the best option for parents.