ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the case study of this book: judicial proceedings concerning medical treatment for children experiencing gender dysphoria. It explains the welfare jurisdiction under section 67ZC of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), which is the legislative basis for the Family Court of Australia to grant or refuse permission for what have come to be known as ‘special medical procedures’ for children. Two factual issues that determine the Family Court’s ability to exercise its welfare jurisdiction are discussed: the child’s capacity to consent to treatment; and the subject matter of the application falling into the special medical procedure category and so beyond the scope of parental responsibility to consent. The extension of the welfare jurisdiction to medical treatment for childhood gender dysphoria is examined through an overview of three significant court decisions. Finally, this chapter explains the role of courts in moderating the relationship between a child’s decisional privacy and identity. This chapter provides the essential backdrop for the argument that, as courts have increasingly encroached upon decision-making in relation to transgender and gender diverse children’s medical treatment, they have deprived those children of their decisional privacy rights.
