Abstract
Transgender advocates argue that minor children ought to be able to make their own decisions regarding transition. Advocates further argue that such a choice should be permitted without parental consent. The minor children’s transgender moment has the potential to drastically erode the traditional understanding of parental rights. What individuals such as Elliot Page, Caitlyn Jenner, and Laverne Cox all have in common is the fact that they were adults when they transitioned, not children. Children, this article asserts, are mentally incapable of understanding the full effect of transition and the damage inflicted by gender transition treatment and surgery.
As such, this paper argues that the Constitution, when originally understood, does not contemplate nor grant any rights to minor children. While this paper contends that minors do not have any expressed rights under the Constitution to make decisions regarding their upbringing, common law principles do empower and support the proposition that parental rights to control and direct the upbringing of minor children are impliedly granted by the Constitution and the common law. It is further argued, here, that parental rights are not tantamount to some inexorable command but may be limited by the state when the state’s interest is patently sufficient.
Recommended Citation
F. L. Francis,
Who Decides: What the Constitution Says About Parental Authority and the Rights of Minor Children to Seek Gender Transition Treatment,
46
S. Ill. U. L.J.
535
(2022).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol46/iss3/5