Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Which Requires Consent: Puberty or Puberty Blockers?

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Alan responds to the claim that children should be required to consent to puberty. ...

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Do children need to consent to going through the natural process of puberty? Well, that's what some advocates of transgender ideology are asking. And that's what I want to consider in this episode of my podcast, Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shleeman. The United Kingdom recently banned providing puberty blockers to minors. Now puberty blockers are these drugs that, you know, quote unquote, pause puberty. And they're intended to sort of give a gender dysphoric minor additional time to sort of decide whether they want to be a boy or a girl. Now, here is what the British court reasoned.
Starting point is 00:00:54 In other words, this is one of the reasons why they thought they need to ban these drugs. They said, quote, it is highly unlikely that a child that is age 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers, end quote. Now, of course, I think this makes sense to most people, right? I mean, how can a child understand the long-term risks and consequences of taking synthetic hormones that stop the body from producing testosterone and estrogen, which would thereby prevent puberty and the natural maturing process of human development. Now, naturally, transgender ideology advocates were in an uproar over the decision, and many of these advocates, you know, went to news outlets, you know, wrote articles,
Starting point is 00:01:45 posted on social media, and just expressed their outrage and anger. Now, though I would argue their criticisms were not persuasive, there was one particular response that, in my opinion, was especially absurd, okay? And it was on Reddit, and there was a user there who was upset about this British court ruling that children couldn't consent to puberty blockers. Okay, so listen carefully. They were upset that the court said that children can't consent to puberty blockers.
Starting point is 00:02:19 And so this is how the Reddit user responded. He said, well then how are children able to consent to puberty? Puberty, he argued, is more serious of a decision and requires more maturity than blockers. So end quote there. Okay, so in other words, puberty, in their opinion, is riskier than the drugs that block puberty. Now, ridiculous as this is, this type of reasoning actually
Starting point is 00:02:47 isn't new. I've seen this type of reasoning happening on the abortion debate as well. In fact, a lot of abortion choice advocates have long offered a similar type of argument in defense of the abortion choice position. And what they claim is, is that pregnancy is a dangerous condition and giving birth therefore is more dangerous than abortion. And so what they try to do is list a bunch of complications that can possibly arise after a woman conceives. And the bottom line is, is that pregnancy and childbirth are dangerous,
Starting point is 00:03:22 so women should have access to abortion. Now, the view that treats puberty and pregnancy as undesirable processes, stems from a more fundamental shift in thinking. And that shift is the result of the fact that society has slowly abandoned the Christian worldview, and all of the theistic implications that arise from that
Starting point is 00:03:45 worldview. And so here's the idea. They say, look, if there's no God, which of course they don't believe there is a God, if there's no God, then there's no creator who created our bodies and made our bodies to operate in any kind of particular way. And so consequently, organs are our bodies, organs don't have any kind of teleology. Teleology is just a fancy word for, you know, organs, our bodies organs, don't have any kind of teleology. Teleology is just a fancy word for, you know, design or purpose or final function. Right? So they say organs don't have any design or function, right? Or any final function that's intended to be there.
Starting point is 00:04:22 There's no way that an organ is designed to function. And if there's no design, if there's no standard or no optimal way for an organ to operate, then there can be no substandard or less than optimal way that they can function. So for example, a uterus can gestate a fetus or not gestate a fetus or not gestate a fetus. A uterus can grow fibroids or not grow fibroids.
Starting point is 00:04:50 A uterus can be kept in a woman's body or it could be removed. And so likewise, it is reasoned that genes and genetic pathways and the endocrine system can progress a body through puberty or not, right? We can accept the process of puberty or block the hormonal pathways that lead to puberty. So again, do you see what they're trying to say is there's no way the body is supposed to be.
Starting point is 00:05:17 It just is, and we can do what we want with it. Now, as a result of this worldview shift in our culture, some people think it's possible that any process of the body therefore is optional. And that's why they think puberty might need consent. Indeed, even life itself is a matter of consent for some people, right? Which is why physician-assisted suicide
Starting point is 00:05:40 has gained popularity in a lot of parts of the world. But I wanna offer or suggest two fundamental mistakes in this type of thinking. And here's the first one. Puberty, like pregnancy, is physiological. Now, what I mean by that is that physiology refers to normal body function. It's a healthy state.
Starting point is 00:06:04 And so more specifically, puberty is a process that is consistent with the design of the endocrine system. And so therefore claiming that puberty requires consent presumes that it can be viewed as a pathophysiological process or some sort of disease state. In other words, puberty is a condition for which puberty blockers are the treatment.
Starting point is 00:06:27 Okay, again, that's their view. But I hope you can see that puberty and pregnancy are not abnormal processes or dysfunctions. They're normal ways that the body operates. Now, it's true that either process can become dysfunctional, but so can any physiological process at any stage of development, right? I mean, your body could develop mutations, tumors, infections, and you know, a whole bunch of other things. So puberty and pregnancy, though,
Starting point is 00:06:56 are not inherently, though, pathophysiological. Now, the second mistake in thinking is that you don't consent to a natural process, right? Natural processes, especially the body development, simply occur as a result of your being alive, of your being a living human being. And so you don't consent to being born, you don't consent to getting taller, you don't consent to producing urine, right? They just simply happen to you. And in fact, we know they are a normal process because when they fail to occur in a person,
Starting point is 00:07:33 we naturally become concerned, right? We call in the doctor or some other person to evaluate, what's the problem? And so if you consent to cause a disease process, then not only have you created a physical health problem, but I would argue you've also probably have a mental health problem. And so in the same way, puberty is a natural
Starting point is 00:07:55 developmental milestone in humans. And if someone never experienced puberty, we would recognize that as a symptom of a disease process. And we would want to call in a physician to evaluate what's going on. And so this is why it doesn't make sense to consent to or to refuse consent, right? Puberty like pregnancy is a natural physiological process that ensures the continuation of the species. Now, fortunately, most people see the error in this thinking, and it's puberty-blocking drugs, not puberty itself, that requires consent.
Starting point is 00:08:34 But even so, children can't possibly understand the long-term effects and the implications of synthetic hormones that cause a critical physiological process like puberty. And that's why adults are the ones who are supposed to be the ones who are responsible for the welfare of their children. Sadly, of course, too many people have been deceived by the way society has thought about these ideas
Starting point is 00:09:00 and have become infatuated with transgender ideology. So as my boss, my friend, Greg Kogel says, look, the world is confused. That doesn't mean that we have to be confused, right? And I love that quote because every year it seems there is a new ideology that is brought up in society that people start to become enamored by. But these ideologies are often contrary to truth or to common sense. So even though we as believers have access to the truth, both through special and general revelation, it's still possible for us to become deceived. And so that's why it's important for us to stay vigilant and to ground yourself in God's truth
Starting point is 00:09:44 that will help you to be less susceptible to that confusion. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you've enjoyed this episode, I encourage you to share it with a friend. And also, don't forget to subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss any future episodes when they are released. And thank you for listening. I look forward to thinking out loud with you, next time.

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