A Federal appeals court in Boston has upheld a ruling granting a Massachusetts transgender inmate to have a sex change operation.
According to the Boston Globe, the court ruled that transsexual inmate Michelle Kosilek, formally Robert, is entitled to a sex change operation as treatment for her severe gender identity disorder.
The 64-year-old is serving a life sentence for the murder conviction of wife Cheryl Kosilek.
Kosilek was born a man, but has been receiving hormone treatments and living as a woman in a men’s prison since the conviction.
The New York Times has reported that prison officials are worried about protecting Kosilek after the surgery.
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has said that the court must uphold the rights of all people, as well as prisoners. “And receiving medically necessary treatment is one of those rights, even if that treatment strikes some as odd or unorthodox,” the court said.
Kosilek’s right comes with a price tag and when the operation for the convicted killer does take place, it will be funded by the tax payers.