米国の終身刑囚人、SRS費用めぐり刑務所を訴え

米国の終身刑囚人、性転換費用めぐり刑務所を訴え (ロイター 2006/06/08)

６月７日、米国の終身刑囚人が性転換費用めぐりマサチューセッツ州の刑務所当局を訴えていることが明らかに。写真は同州の刑務所で０３年８月撮影（2006年　ロイター/Brian Snyder）
　
　［ボストン　７日　ロイター］　米国で終身刑に服している男の受刑者が６日、性転換手術の費用支払いを求めて、マサチューセッツ州の刑務所当局を訴えていることがわかった。男は妻を殺した罪で服役中だが、これまで何年間も女性として生きてきたという。

　男の弁護士は、連邦裁判所に提出した訴状で「男性が残りの人生を男性の体で生きていくことに耐えがたい苦痛を感じ、自殺のリスクもある」と警告した。

　この受刑者は、女性ホルモンの錠剤を服用し、毛を剃るなどして見た目は女性のよう。自分は性同一性障害なので、手術の拒否はすなわち、残酷で異常な虐待を加えているのに等しいと主張している。

　性同一性障害に詳しいテキサス大学の教授によると、この症状は米医学会で確認されており、１万人に１人の割合で起こるという。また米国では、男性から女性への性転換手術には、１―２万ドル（約１１４－２２８万円）かかると語った。

US prisoner sues for sex-change operation
Wed Jun 7, 2006 12:25pm ET
By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - An inmate serving a life sentence for killing his wife is suing the Massachusetts prison system, asking it to pay for a sex-change operation.

Lawyers for Robert Kosilek, who uses the name Michelle and has lived off-and-on as a woman for years, warned in federal court papers filed on Tuesday that Kosilek faces "risk of suicide ... due to the unbearable prospect of living the rest of her life in a male body."

Kosilek, who takes estrogen pills and has had laser hair removal to make him look like a woman, asserted that he suffers from gender identity disorder and that denying the operation amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The condition is recognized by the U.S. medical establishment, and affects one in 10,000 people, according to Walter Meyer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, and an expert in gender identity disorder.

The lawsuit, filed in 2000, asks that the court order the Massachusetts Department of Correction to pay for his surgery on the grounds that he was being denied needed medical care.

In the United States, surgery to replace male genitalia with a facsimile of female genitalia costs from $10,000 to $20,000, Meyer said.

"If you're in the free world and you have this problem, very few insurance companies pay for it," Meyer said. "Most people live in the new gender and don't get the surgery."

The case is being heard in U.S. District Court in Boston. Kosilek was convicted in 1993 in the murder of his wife, Cheryl.

According to court papers, Kosilek was abused as a child and in the 1970s was beaten and raped while living as a woman.

A state corrections spokeswoman declined to comment on the case and Kosilek's lawyer did not answer calls.