The UK High Court rejects a legal challenge against a clinical trial that aims to recruit over 220 children. “Children should never be used as guinea pigs”, say the claimants.
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience of the King's College London. / Photo: [link]King's College London[/link]
The High Court of the United Kingdom has ruled that the Pathways puberty blockers clinical trial, run by researchers at King's College London university, can start recruiting over 220 children aged between 11 and 16 years old to take part in the study.
The ruling states that girls must be at least 11 and boys at least 12 before receiving the drugs.
Bayswater Support Group, which represents parents of trans children, psychotherapist James Esses, and detransitioner Keira Bell, brought a legal challenge against the trial, stating that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Health Research Authority acted unlawfully by approving the study without considering its long-term effects on children.
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However, judge Justice Chamberlain, refused the application for a judicial review, saying that none of the claims made by Bayswater had “a realistic chance of success”.
He pointed out that each patient involved in the trial would have been assessed over “many months” by specialist doctors who would have “formed the opinion that a child has a reasonable prospect of receiving a clinical benefit from the treatment”.
King's College London welcomed the court's decision, stressing that the "safety and welfare of young people will remain our highest priority in carrying out this research".
On the contrary, for James Esses, “vulnerable children should never be used as Guinea pigs in medical experimentation that may lead them down a path towards irreversible physiological and emotional damage, including infertility”.
“This trial is the antithesis of child safeguarding and I will now be consulting with my lawyers regarding the possibility of an appeal”, he added.
Keira Bell, a former transgender patient, defined the result as “a tragedy”.
“I know first-hand how much this process breaks you. My story and the story of many others since should have been a big enough warning. A trial has already been conducted and the results were bleak”, she underlined.
Puberty blockers for under-18s were indefinitely banned in the UK in 2024, after the announcement on March of the same year that children would no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, followed by a ban on puberty blockers through emergency legislation.
A 2022 review for NHS England by former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Hilary Cass, warned that “gender medicine for children and young people is built on shaky foundations” and is “remarkably weak” evidence on medical interventions.
Before that, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that it was up to doctors to decide if children under 16 could be prescribed puberty blockers without parental consent, although months later in July 2022, the NHS closed the Tavistock gender clinic in London.
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