Un mineur peut-il consentir à un parcours de transition médicale?

Abstract

As hundreds of so-called transgender children and teenagers enter “medical transition” processes with serious consequences, the relevance of the application of the rules of the Public Health Code relating to patient information and consent must be questioned : to what extent are these young minors capable of understanding the information provided and giving free and informed consent to these programmes?

The medical controversies that have arisen concerning the consequences of the medical transition processes, the experimental nature of which has been pointed out, raise serious doubts about the quality, reliability and fairness of the information given. Furthermore, is the complexity of the information communicated to minors who have no life experience, the eagerness of young patients, the influence of social networks, and the censure attached to possible therapeutic alternatives compatible with the capacity to give free and informed consent?

Finally, if it is not a question of treating a pathology but of “concretising the right to self-determination”, can we still claim the application of rules specific to the medical field? If there is no medical necessity or very serious medical reason, is it legitimate to accede to a minor's request to irreversibly damage his or her body?

In the UK, a thousand families are reportedly preparing to take legal action for medical negligence, alleging that their vulnerable children have been misdiagnosed and placed on a damaging medical transition course. Yet these minors had been found to be ‘consenting’.

It is time to weigh up the relevance of the sacredness of the minor's consent.