Judge: Prisoner should get sex-change surgery
BOSTON (CNN) - A federal judge has ruled that a convicted murderer has the right to taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery while serving time in prison.
In 1993, Robert Kosilek was found guilty of strangling his wife to death and a judge sentenced him to a life sentence. While in prison, Kosilek legally changed his name to Michelle and has been living as a woman in an all-male prison ever since.
Kosilek claims to suffer from gender identity disorder, which is recognized as a form of mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association. In 2002, a judge ruled that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for the disorder, which included hormone therapy, but stopped short of ordering sex-reassignment surgery.
On Tuesday, however, US District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf, a Ronald Reagan appointee, said that sex-reassignment surgery was the only way to treat Kosilek's "serious medical need." Kosilek has tried self-castration and also attempted to commit suicide twice because of the gender-identity disorder.
But prison officials say the gender-reassignment surgery would make Kosilek a target for sexual assault.
Judge Wolf says prison officials have to decide where to house Kosilek after the surgery.
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