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Trans medical ethics
Medical research is a complex and knotty area to engage with, especially when it comes to trans bodies. Historically the number of medicalised trans bodies globally has always been a small cohort, meaning that research on trans health has relied on a sliver of this already small group. Added to this has been the work of researchers such as John Money and Kenneth Zucker, both of which were discredited for unethical work on children. Trans medical ethics are a compound problem due to small sample sizes and the personal perspectives of the various researchers involved meaning that attempting to conduct trans medical research in the 2020s will always be freighted with the sins of the past.
Added to this is the need for informed consent of all participants, including those whose data is anonymised. No patient data should be handed over for any clinical review unless the patient actively opts in. No ifs, no buts. No patient should inadvertently be included in a study unless this consent is forthcoming, especially given the nature of trans medicine. This is a hard line which I believe should never be crossed, especially when trans research is so heavily politicised. Without informed consent patient data is likely stripped of context, the texture of their lives reduced to data points that have no sense in isolation. One person’s frustration may well be another patient’s joy, and unless context is provided you end…
