01-07-2017, 09:00 PM
It's way more than one state or one person in play here.
It's emerging medical designations and recommended treatments for gender identification issues, globally. And, when it comes to inmates in the U.S., it's a matter of how that fits into the 8th Amendment's prohibition against “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners” under the "cruel and unusual" clause.
Sadly, the U.S. doesn't guarantee all citizens adequate health care as a Constitutional right. But, it does for inmates via Supreme Court ruling in Estelle vs. Gamble. So, whether it's a bad heart, bad knees, a brain tumor, gender dysphoria............inmates are guaranteed treatment whereas some law-abiding citizens are denied treatment due to finances, insurance companies, lack of access to specialists...
Anyway, a federal district judge made the call ordering the state to provide the surgery given the severity of the prisoner's condition; the state officials fought it.
It's emerging medical designations and recommended treatments for gender identification issues, globally. And, when it comes to inmates in the U.S., it's a matter of how that fits into the 8th Amendment's prohibition against “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners” under the "cruel and unusual" clause.
Sadly, the U.S. doesn't guarantee all citizens adequate health care as a Constitutional right. But, it does for inmates via Supreme Court ruling in Estelle vs. Gamble. So, whether it's a bad heart, bad knees, a brain tumor, gender dysphoria............inmates are guaranteed treatment whereas some law-abiding citizens are denied treatment due to finances, insurance companies, lack of access to specialists...
Anyway, a federal district judge made the call ordering the state to provide the surgery given the severity of the prisoner's condition; the state officials fought it.