Posted on 01/18/2014 11:38:40 AM PST by Red Steel
BOSTON — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a judge's ruling granting a taxpayer-funded sex change operation for a transgender inmate serving a life sentence for a murder conviction, saying receiving medically necessary treatment is a constitutional right that must be protected "even if that treatment strikes some as odd or unorthodox."
U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled in 2012 that the state Department of Correction must provide sex reassignment surgery for Michelle Kosilek, who was born Robert Kosilek and is serving a life sentence for the killing of his wife in 1990.
The Department of Correction challenged the ruling, arguing Kosilek has received adequate treatment for gender identity disorder, including female hormones, laser hair removal and psychotherapy. Prison officials said those treatments have eased the stress and anxiety felt by the 64-year-old Kosilek, and they brought in experts who supported their argument that it was unnecessary to heed advice from independent medical experts who recommended she undergo the sex change surgery as the next step in treating her gender identity disorder.
The Department of Correction also argued it was concerned about protecting Kosilek, who's in an all-male prison, from sexual assaults if she were allowed to complete her transformation into a woman.
But judges cited a prison security review conducted after Kosilek lived safely as a woman with male prisoners, wearing women's clothing, using women's cosmetics and taking hormones that caused her to develop breasts. They said no security issues cropped up.
U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Judges O. Rogeriee Thompson and William Kayatta Jr. said in their ruling that courts must not shrink from their obligation to enforce the constitutional rights of all people, including prisoners.
"And receiving medically necessary treatment is one of those rights, even if that treatment strikes some as odd or unorthodox,"
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
What are people like this going to do when there’s no government around to babysit them?
Not being rich and not being emperor causes me stress.
Therefore it’s “medically necessary” that I be made rich and appointed emperor immediately to treat my delusions of grandeur complex.
Those whack judges should have to pay for the surgery
He killed his wife in 1990. Why wasn’t he (properly) punished?
He wants a sex change operation? Fine. A little slice and dice below the belt (no anesthesia necessary). Super Glue on some falsies. Slap a Dolly Parton wig. Then hang him.
And perform it too. Ain’t that hard. As per my post #5.
Share this with your Democrat friends and acquaintances. Ask them to explain it to you. Most of them don’t even know that their party is what makes this happen.
So if I get incarcerated, can I claim “Withering Willie Disorder” (AKA Timid Trouser Snake) and get schlong enhancement therapy?
Moral corruption becomes mental corruption becomes legal corruption.
There is a direct linkage between morality and fitness for office. Once people lose their moral sense, rule of law breaks down and you have rule of idiocy.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro???
No, your honor .... not odd or unorthodox ... INSANE !
I could do it much cheaper than a surgeon. Just need to fire up the chain saw.
"receiving medically necessary treatment is a constitutional right "
Doesn't this set the stage for govt run healthcare at the minimum, and socialism or communism? Why not a right to food, shelter, clothing, education... The list is endless.
Paging Lorena Bobbitt...
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