Dear Fellow WPATH Members:

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Given that we are a global organization, our vision is that our Ethics Guidelines, training courses and SOCv8 recommendations must strive to be globally relevant. We assume that our members already follow the ethical principles as set out by their respective professional organizations. Implicit in most of the Global North*, professional ethics is an emphasis on autonomy and the individual. We know that is not necessarily true in cultures with more collective or familial modes of discernment, decision making, and obligation.

We are aware that most of the WPATH research is situated in a Global North perspective and, hence, so are our Standards of Care. Moreover, our Ethics course is based on a tradition in medical ethics that is dominated by a principle-based approach. These principles are variously defined and argued about, but there is general agreement that they include:

1. beneficence, meaning the professional’s obligation to help the patient,
2. non-maleficence, or the precept to “do no harm”,
3. autonomy or self-determination,
4. justice, or fairness, among like members of a group.

A corrective set of values has also developed over the past 30 years or so, and these values include integrity, compassion, discernment, and kindness.

In contrast to this more “Western” tradition of ethics, some moral traditions locate the responsibility for decision making in the family or the community. In some cultures, a person who in the West might identify as “non-binary” would not recognize that description, since the larger culture itself is less “binary.”

We want to learn about additional moral traditions and frameworks to become more inclusive and WE WANT AND NEED YOUR INPUT. We understand that ethics is a conversation, and would like to start a conversation with our membership, to make sure that what we are doing is sensitive to the experiences of all of our members.

How do social customs intersect with various conceptions of ethics and obligations? How do these differences in social customs intersect with identification of individuals in need of care or medical treatment?

We have created some open-ended questions to help us, as we develop our ethics thinking, and we encourage your input.

*In the Global North we include most of Europe, Russia, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In discussions of ethics, these are often referred to as “the West."

**In Global South, we include South America, Africa, China and India.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

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Kindest regards,

Members of the WPATH ETHICS COMMITTEE

Members of the WPATH SOCv8 ETHICS CHAPTER

Members of WPATH GEI Committee and

Members of the WPATH ETHICS Course Developers