No Trans mutilation surgery for children without parental approval? How about none period

Opinion | By Easton Martin | March 5, 2025

The Hippocratic Oath begins with a simple directive: do no harm. In the current medical landscape, that foundational principle is being tested by the rise of permanent, life altering procedures performed under the banner of gender affirming care. While a recent post from Donald Trump on Truth Social suggests that parental consent might be the necessary guardrail for these surgeries, a more fundamental question remains. Should these procedures be permitted on minors at all?

​In his post, Trump wrote, “NO TRANSGENDER MUTILATION SURGERY FOR CHILDREN, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN APPROVAL OF THE PARENTS.” 

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116177318025647566

While this position marks a level of progress toward medical accountability, the requirement for a signature does not resolve the ethical crisis at hand. The argument for parental oversight is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough.

​Children and adolescents lack the neurological maturity to grasp the lifelong consequences of these procedures. These are not minor medical interventions. They are often irreversible surgeries and high dose hormonal therapies that can lead to permanent sterilization and the loss of natural biological functions. To suggest that a child, or even a parent on their behalf, can truly consent to such a procedure is a failure of medical ethics. It should not be a controversial statement to say that children cannot fully understand the impact of these treatments.  

​The medical community must move beyond the debate over consent forms and recognize these practices for what they are. A complete ban on these procedures for children is the only way to ensure the protection of the next generation. This is not a matter of restricting freedom. It is a matter of safeguarding children from experimental medicine.

​The conversation should extend to adults as well. When a medical professional performs a surgery that removes healthy organs or destroys functional biological systems, they are abandoning the core mission of healing. Any doctor who participates in the mutilation of a patient is no doctor at all. They are participating in a trend that prioritizes ideology over biological reality.

​The standard for medical care should be the preservation of the human body, not its destruction. We need a clear, unwavering policy that prohibits these surgeries across the board. Protecting the vulnerable requires us to stand against the normalization of these disgusting practices and hold the medical establishment to a higher standard of care.