Anyone who thought that Massachusetts inmate Michelle Kosilek’s sex reassignment surgery would proceed smoothly after Judge Mark Wolf ruled that Kosilek had an Eighth Amendement right to “adequate medical care” to treat her gender-identity disorder has seriously underestimated the appeals process. Shame on you for oversimplifying. Massachusetts officials announced Wednesday that they plan to appeal Judge Wolf’s decision to grant Kosilek, a convicted murderer, a request for the surgery, ensuring that more reductive radio hosts in the greater-Boston area will debate exasperated callers about the meaning of the phrase “medically necessary.”
Kosilek’s attorney did not offer any immediate comment because she didn’t know about the appeal. Judge Wolf had determined that sex reassignment surgery was the “only adequate treatment” for Kosilek’s gender-identity disorder, though some Massachusetts legislators were incredulous that taxpayers would be picking up the $20,000-plus tab for Kosilek’s surgery because elected officials are nothing but respectful of taxpayers and would never use sacred taxpayer treasure to buy frivolous things like, say, a wildly inefficient and probably corrupt $2.8 million dollar highway improvement project that ran nine years behind schedule.
Mass. officials to fight murderer’s sex change [CBS]
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