The Danish Ethics Council has recommended that government agencies allow 12- or even 10-year-olds to legally reassign their sex. This was reported on March 10 by Berlingske.
Physicians, researchers and parents interviewed by the council members generally believe that children with gender dysphoria, at the age of 10-12, are affirmed in their sense of what gender they are.
The left-wing parties of the Danish parliament, including the ruling Social Democrats, supported such an initiative. The rest of the parties, not related to socialists, spoke negatively: they warned that such a step by the government could make children with dysphoria “victims of the experiment.” There is still insufficient data on whether legal gender reassignment helps in matters of teenage transgender people to draw conclusions about this – it is not known, among other things, what proportion of “sex reassigners” in this way subsequently regret their decision.
In December, a court in Britain tightened the rules for taking drugs that block puberty – such drugs are taken by young transgender people. Now in the country, gender reassignment therapy up to 16 years old can be carried out only if there is an appropriate court order. In addition, in the case of adolescents between 16 and 18 years of age, doctors may also need to consult with a court to obtain approval for medical intervention.