WH encourages gender reassignment surgery for minors

[Ninurta]

The OP brings up a good point.

When you are old enough to drink, smoke, when you are an adult, then you can make decisions that may impact your entire life.

My Masters degree in in Developmental Neurobiology.

And chemical changes made during a time of growth on the human brain (neurotropic compounds, hormones) can have long-lasting, even permanent impacts.

It's funny and sad that they are actually ignoring the SCIENCE to push some agenda.

I agree with this. Most kids are not emotionally mature enough to make decisions like drinking, smoking, buying a gun, or voting, That's why we even have an "age of majority" to begin with.

It's also a prime reason that offspring of any species has parents - when they are young, they need guidance.

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Little Johnny - "Dad, I want to buy a pistol"

Dad - "well why do you want a pistol, Little Johnny?"

Little Johnny - "" So I can shoot Kenny across the street for stealing my baseball."

Dad - "No, Little Johnny, stealing a baseball is not sufficient provocation to shoot someone. You may NOT buy a pistol".

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Small Sally - "Mom, I want to smoke and drink, so I need some smokes and a jug"

Mom - "Well why do you want to smoke and drink, Small Sally?"

Small Sally - "Coz all the cool kids are, and I wanna be cool too."

Mom "No, Small Sally. being 'cool' is an insufficient reason to destroy your health. You may NOT smoke and drink"

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Tiny Thomas - "hey y'all, I wanna vote in the next election"

Parents - "Well why do you want to vote, Tiny Thomas?"

Tiny Thomas - "Coz Dear Leader sucks at giving me everything I want, so I wanna vote a Communist in, coz commies get all their stuff for free"

Parents (horrified stare) - "No, Tiny Thomas, you may never live to be old enough to vote now!"

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So, until the kiddies are emotionally mature enough to make such decisions for themselves, it falls to the parents to guide them in their decision making, and teach them how to think so that when they ARE legally old enough, they will make proper decisions on their own. Note that I said "how" to think, not "what" to think. If a person knows how to think, he or she is entirely capable of figuring out what to think on their own, no prompting necessary.

Some kids reach emotional maturity significantly earlier than others, and some reach it significantly later than average (although that latter set has a disturbing habit of getting weeded out of life early on due to the combination of legal adulthood and poor decision making skills). So 18 as the age of majority was a collective compromise to make everything even across the board. It was the only way to make the law equitable.

Now, a number of places are walking it back to 21 for drinking, smoking, and gun purchases - but, ironically, those same folks are pushing to DROP the voting age to 16, which is a bone-headed move... a vote is a far more dangerous weapon, and dangerous to more people, than any gun, cigarette, or shot of whiskey ever even thought of being. It determines the fate of a nation, whereas the others are able to just ruin one or a few people at most.

Also on that front, I am told that the brain is the last organ to reach maturity, and continues to grow and develop until about the age of 25, so all of the other ages of majority are fairly arbitrary...

... but I personally think that they should all be arbitrarily set to the same age in all cases, and stick with it. The limbo of "I'm a legal adult but not really" ought to be eliminated - that part of life is tough enough already.

Until thy reach that age of majority, kids have their parents or caregivers to think for them and teach them how to decide on their own, and that would include the momentous decision to start lopping off body parts or tacking new ones on, as if the child were a mere Lego set.

When they are old enough to decide on their own, then let them have at it, and no judgement accrues. It ain't MY body to tinker with, it's theirs. Their decision, not mine.


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