When children are asked to testify in court they’re asked questions to determine if they’re capable of being a reliable witness: “do you know it’s bad to lie?” “you have to tell the truth no matter what” etc.

Why can’t a similar assessment be made for the young transabled person to determine if they’re capable of understanding the implications of their wishes. Clearly at age 12 they may not have ample opportunity to truly investigate the implications of their decisions (for something “more serious” like paralysis) but that isn’t a fault of their own.

Of course that doesn’t mean that every 12 year old transabled person doesn’t want to learn or isn’t spending time in the library reading or using the internet (as 12 year olds do these days) to find out what the reality of being paralysed or blind or deaf or whatever is. What sort of metric would a TA-friendly surgeon use to determine if the young TA person is a suitable candidate (understands risks, has expectations based in reality, able to do post operative care, etc)? That I don’t know but wouldn’t it be similar to that which is used to gauge a young person’s standing in a court?

I fully appreciate the critical need for early “intervention” in Kim’s case (and all other transsexuals). I don’t dispute that in the least.

My questioning is more in the case of transabled individuals. Arguably, the long term impact of pre-puberty transition to the “opposite” gender is going to be minimal when compared to what the early “onset” of an extensive impairment such as paralysis, blindness, amputation, or even deafness would be.

What if they cried out for help and you said “No! You’re not old enough! You need to wait SIX YEARS and then we’ll see what happens.”

For Kim if she didn’t start at 12 she would have went through puberty – a BOY’S PUBERTY. It will completely ruin her life as it has millions of other transsexuals.

You can’t fathom how terrible it is for a girl to have her voice to break and to suddenly start growing facial hair and wider in the soulders.

What if she was forced to wait and she committed suicide at age 14 because her voice broke and had a full beard (that would take hundreds of hours of excruciatingly painful electrolysis to remove).

It’s one thing for a person to believe that it is right for them to forgo medical treatment but to force someone else to endure hell is cruel at best.

I wish all transsexuals could transition at the earliest age possible! Preventing puberty is critical. Starting as soon as possible is critical so the kid can have some semblance of a normal childhood and not have to remember a double life which we all loathe.