Treatment for Gender Transition & Parental Obligations
1 Independent Researcher, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA
2 Independent Researcher, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA;
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 16 Aug 2025 / Accepted: 6 Apr 2026 / Published: 10 May 2026
Abstract
Proponents of gender transition procedures argue that parents have a moral obligation to support and facilitate a child or adolescent in the decision to transition medically. In this paper, we challenge this idea. We contend that parents of children and adolescents have a moral obligation to oppose medical transition. To argue for this claim, we present and draw conclusions from a series of cases that are similar in their morally relevant details to cases involving medical transition for children and adolescents. Given such similarity, we contend that, on pain of irrationality, one must issue the same judgments across the board. If one does not make the same judgments about the cases, then the onus is on the defender of medical transition for children and adolescents to highlight a morally significant asymmetry. We argue that no such asymmetry exists.
Keywords: cross-sex hormone treatment; puberty blocking treatment; parenting; obligations; bioethics
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
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provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
CITE
Smith, E.; Rusavuk, A.L. Treatment for Gender Transition & Parental Obligations. Controversial Ideas 2026, 6, 8.
Smith E, Rusavuk AL. Treatment for Gender Transition & Parental Obligations. Controversial Ideas. 2026; 6(1):8.
Smith, Emmanuel; Rusavuk, Andre Leo. 2026. "Treatment for Gender Transition & Parental Obligations." Controversial Ideas 6, no. 1: 8.
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