Re: Imogen (No. 6) [2020] FamCA 761

The Family Court’s ruling Re: Imogen (No. 6) [2020] FamCA 761 does not generally cast doubt on the concept of Gillick competency in relation to treatments for gender dysphoria. The Family Court’s ruling in Re Imogen is only concerned with the situation where a parent or a medical practitioner disputes that an adolescent is actually Gillick competent, or that the adolescent has a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, or that proposed treatment for gender dysphoria is required. It does not concern the situation where there is no such dispute.

Justice Watts found that Imogen was Gillick competent to provide consent to Stage 2 treatment, and in circumstances of the dispute as between her parents about that treatment, it was in Imogen’s best interests to order that she could have the proposed stage 2 treatment. This was based on Justice Watts’s accepting the expert opinion of her treating doctors, which His Honour found was consistent with the accepted majority of the medical profession.