This post is simply an intro into the poll question that I posed below. The First Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals held on January 17, 2014 that a State must pay for an inmate’s sex-change operation.
See opinion here: http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=12-2194P.01A
If you read through this, the Court found that the Plaintiff, Michelle Kosilek (formerly Robert) suffered from “gender identity disorder”, a disorder recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. The Court also held that a sex-change operation was “medically necessary” to treat this disorder. Since the plaintiff is an inmate in the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, the State of Massachusetts must pay for this procedure.
(By the way, this Plaintiff is in prison for murder of ex-wife)
The Plaintiff claimed that failure to provide this “medically necessary” procedure violated plaintiff’s eighth amendment rights. The Eighth Amendment in this context protects against cruel and unusual punishment. We can debate as to whether this is cruel and unusual punishment or whether it is necessary but I won’t do that here. I only ask this simple question:
Should the state be forced to pay for an inmate’s sex-change operation?
Coxlaw Blog 