An excellent piece in yesterday’s Telegraph by Ceila Walden, the drop-dead gorgeous wife of Piers Morgan and mother of their children. Back in 2009 or 2010 Celia emailed me. I’d sent a copy of my book The Fraud of the Rings, my upbeat critique of the institution of marriage – later, one of my first five international bestsellers – to the Telegraph along with other national newspapers. She told me she’d taken a snap of the cover on her iPhone and emailed it to Piers (then her fiancé) who appreciated the image. Her article:
The landmark judgment due in the case of Keira Bell vs the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust should come down to the meaning of two words: “Informed consent”.
Did 23-year-old Bell “agree to the health intervention”, made by the NHS’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), when they prescribed puberty blockers to aid her transition to a male “based on an understanding of the benefits and risks involved”?
To answer that question, you need only know one fact: at the time of her “consent”, Bell was 16.
Six years after this gender non-conforming child thought she had found the answer after years of “hatred for my female body” and “low self-esteem”, Bell’s problems are far from over. And although the clinic has insisted that all their patients undergo a thorough assessment process, which was ongoing, Bell claims it took only three one-hour appointments for the self-described “tomboy” to be given puberty blockers; these delay the development of the signs of puberty such as breasts, periods or facial hair. Cross-sex hormones were administered next and, at 20, Bell had a double mastectomy.
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