Date of Award

7-2-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Laws (LLM)

First Advisor

Roxanne Mykitiuk

Abstract

This thesis re-evaluates the concept of autonomy and the possibilities for trans racialized youth to practice it in current health care decision making contexts. After discussing access to health care in Ontario for this demographic using diverse research, an analytical foundation is laid using legal pluralism, relational autonomy, transgender theory and disidentification theory. The study uses Photovoice with trans racialized youth to produce visual texts analysed using thematic network analysis. Secondly, the study considers how together, law and medicine discursively work to encourage law-makers and health care providers to undermine the autonomy of trans racialized youth. Authoritative diagnostic and clinical texts are examined alongside decisions from courts and tribunals where trans racialized youth are present. Despite the autonomy granted in Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act, structural vulnerability, judicial paternalism, failure to mandate youth awareness of health care rights and professional ignorance restrict the autonomy practice of trans racialized youth.

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