Children are being paid with vouchers to spend in Uber Eats and retailers like John Lewis when taking part in a puberty blocker trial backed by the NHS, despite the controversy around the issue and concerns for the health of participants.
The Telegraph reports that some 226 children who question their gender are being incentivised with a promise of up to €500 in vouchers for their part in the experiment, which is set to get underway in April.
The British Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has commissioned the investigation after debate around the effect of puberty blockers on the young, after they were described by the Commission on Human Medicines as posing “an unacceptable safety risk” to children.
Children in Northern Ireland are also set to be part of the clinical trial to assess the risks and benefits of puberty-blocking drugs – which delay the onset of puberty in young people. Baroness Hillary Cass’s review of transgender services found that children had been failed by a lack of research and “remarkably weak” evidence on medical interventions in relation to gender services. She also found that “good evidence” that puberty blockers were safe or effective did not exist.
Therapist and campaigner James Esses said this week that the government had been given “every opportunity to halt the monstrous puberty blockers trial”.
“They refused. Now, we will compel them,” he added, announcing that he and others were commencing a Judicial Review.”See you in Court, Wes Streeting,” he said, addressing the Health Secretary.
Critics of the trial argue that it could cause children irreversible harm. James Esses said: ‘We have given Wes Streeting and the relevant bodies every possible opportunity to pull the plug on this abhorrent trial. Even in the face of strong evidence of harm, consistent concerns from clinicians, and hundreds of thousands of members of the public petitioning them to stop, it is business as usual.”
“The recruitment of children is due to commence imminently, yet the conspiracy of silence continues. If they won’t safeguard children of their own accord, we will compel them to do so. The rest of the world is looking on. We will not allow the UK to become the country that knowingly destroyed the lives of vulnerable children,” he said.
However, The Telegraph now reports that “the children taking part in the trial will be incentivised with the promise of up to £500 in vouchers for completing psychometric tests.”
These will measure the effect of the puberty blockers on their brains, including effects on impulse control and memory.
Participants, aged under 16, will receive £30 vouchers for each of the 15 cognitive assessments they complete, as well as £15 vouchers for each of the three MRI scans they undertake, over the two years of the trial.
Children in another arm of the trial, not taking the drugs, will be given £15 vouchers for each bone density scan and blood test they have.
It is understood the children will be given Love2Shop vouchers which can be redeemed at retailers including Currys and John Lewis, as well as Uber Eats and Xbox, among others.
But Claire Coutinho, the Oppositon equalities minister, told the paper: “These children are in a vulnerable position. Adults should not be giving them vouchers in return for being experimented on.
“This trial already risks putting healthy children on a medical pathway to lifelong infertility. There is no minimum age, and it has been confirmed that children who are autistic or have learning difficulties will be able to take part.
Irish psychotherapist and author, Stella O’Malley, spoke with others in Parliament this week, where they said that puberty blockers “will cause long-term suffering” and that the trial was “like giving Ozempic to an anorexic or alcohol to an alcoholic.”