2026-10-06T14:37:52Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34028199 2026-09-30T00:38:33Z category_36404 category_36389 category_36374 category_36383 portal_771 item_type_8 month_year_09_2026

The Courts’ Role in the Use and Application of Puberty Blockers for Gender Affirming Care for Adolescents in Aotearoa New Zealand Jack Young (25139508) Medical and health law Law, gender and sexuality (incl. feminist legal scholarship) Family law Law and society and socio-legal research Puberty Blockers Consent Children Family Law New Zealand Courts Medical Decision Making Healthcare Policy School: School of Law 480412 Medical and health law 480407 Law, gender and sexuality (incl. feminist legal scholarship) 480405 Law and society and socio-legal research 480402 Family law 200501 Adolescent health 230107 Families and family services 230108 Gender and sexualities Degree Discipline: Law Degree Name: Master of Laws Degree Level: Masters <p><strong>This dissertation attempts to answer the question of how New Zealand courts should act when faced with politically charged cases relating to the healthcare of adolescents. Specifically this dissertation is focused on the use of puberty blockers for gender affirming care in adolescents, and what the courts could and should do when faced with making decisions on their use and legality.</strong></p><p>The use of puberty blockers as gender affirming care has become a point of significant political interest in the past few years, but no research has been done on the legality of their use, and of the regulations governing their use.</p><p>By analysing existing literature from multiple disciplines this dissertation has been able to take the varying perspectives of this issue and condense them into a singular coherent legal argument.</p><p>The key finding of this dissertation is that medical literature and legal reasoning align well in court, and that the major complicating factor in court decisions is therefore primarily political in nature.</p><p>The implications of this are that there is a generally clear legal answer to how courts should handle questions around puberty blockers, and that the courts must be careful not to deviate from this purely on political grounds.</p> 2026-09-30T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.26686/skwb-hgrs https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/The_Courts_Role_in_the_Use_and_Application_of_Puberty_Blockers_for_Gender_Affirming_Care_for_Adolescents_in_Aotearoa_New_Zealand/34028199 CC BY-NC-SA 4.0