Toward a Standard of Medical Care: Why Medical Professionals Can Refuse to Prescribe Puberty Blockers

Abstract

That a standard of medical care must outline services that benefit the patient is relatively uncontroversial. However, one must determine how the practices outlined in a medical standard of care should benefit the patient. I will argue that practices outlined in a standard of medical care must not detract from the patient's well-functioning and that clinicians can refuse to provide services that do. This paper, therefore, will advance the following two claims: (1) a standard of medical care must not cause dysfunction, and (2) if a physician is medically rational to not provide some service which fails to meet the above condition (i.e. fails to be a standard of medical care), then she may refuse to do so. I then apply my thesis to the prescription of puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria.

Conscientious refusal or conscientious provision: We can't have both

“…For instance, most of the discussion surrounding conscientious refusals centers around a clinician's ability to refuse to provide morally contentious services such as abortion, 14 end-of-life decisions, 15 emergency contraception, 16 and various treatments for gender dysphoria. 17 In this sense, their arguments and conclusion match the legal frameworks that currently regulate conscientious refusals, as presented above.…”