{"id":14244,"date":"2014-12-16T14:16:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/?p=14244"},"modified":"2014-12-16T14:21:17","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:21:17","slug":"fed-court-of-appeals-no-ma-taxpayers-dont-have-to-pay-for-murderers-sex-change-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/2014\/12\/16\/fed-court-of-appeals-no-ma-taxpayers-dont-have-to-pay-for-murderers-sex-change-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed court of appeals: No, MA taxpayers don’t have to pay for murderer’s sex change operation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Breaking news from the Boston Globe:<\/a>\u00a0a federal appeals court has overturned a district court\u2019s 2012 ruling that Massachusetts inamate Michelle\u00a0Kosilek\u2019s gender identity disorder must be treated with gender reassignment surgery.<\/p>\n

\n

The appeals court said Tuesday it had been asked to determine whether denying Kosilek the surgery constituted cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned by the Eighth Amendment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0appeals\u00a0court said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAfter carefully considering the community standard of medical care, the adequacy of the provided treatment, and the valid security concerns articulated by the DOC, we conclude that the district court erred and that the care provided to Kosilek by the DOC does not violate the Eighth Amendment,\u201d the court said in an opinion written by Judge Juan R. Torruella.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How refreshingly sensible. The \u201ccommunity standard of medical care\u201d most likely\u00a0takes into account\u00a0the 2011 Swedish\u00a0long-term study of people who had sex reassignment surgery, which showed that, in short, sex change surgery doesn\u2019t give people better lives in the long term.\u00a0Dr. McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in the Wall Street Journal:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The long-term study\u2014up to 30 years\u2014followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable nontransgender population. This disturbing result has as yet no explanation but probably reflects the growing sense of isolation reported by the aging transgendered after surgery. The high suicide rate certainly challenges the surgery prescription.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The website\u00a0Sex Change Regret<\/a>\u00a0and the article\u00a0Trouble in Transtopia: Murmurs of Sex Change Regre<\/a>t discuss how recipients of this surgery are pressured to stay silent if they regret their choice.<\/p>\n

The takeaway? In denying the Massachusetts inmate a taxpayer-funded sex change operation, the federal appeals court may have just saved Kosilek a lifetime of regret.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaking news from the Boston Globe:\u00a0a federal appeals court has overturned a district court\u2019s 2012 ruling that Massachusetts inamate Michelle\u00a0Kosilek\u2019s gender identity disorder must be treated with gender reassignment surgery. The appeals court said Tuesday it had been asked to determine whether denying Kosilek the surgery constituted cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1533,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFed court of appeals: No, MA taxpayers don't have to pay for murderer's sex change operation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Breaking news from the Boston Globe:\u00a0a federal appeals court has overturned a district court's 2012 ruling that Massachusetts inamate Michelle\u00a0Kosilek\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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