Supreme Court Rejects Inmate's Appeal for Sex-Change Surgery

Convicted murderer Michelle Kosilek has been seeking sex-reassignment surgery

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a convicted murderer in Massachusetts who has been seeking taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery in prison.

The justices did not comment Monday in letting stand a lower-court ruling against Michelle Kosilek. The prison inmate is serving a life sentence for killing spouse Cheryl Kosilek in 1990.

The inmate has waged a lengthy fight for the surgery she says is necessary to relieve the mental anguish caused by gender-identity disorder.

Last year, a divided federal appeals court in Boston overturned a first-in-the-nation court order for the state to provide the sex-reassignment surgery. Courts around the country have found that prisons must evaluate transgender inmates to determine their health care needs, but most have ordered hormone treatments and psychotherapy, not surgery.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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