in the Los Angeles Times noted that cost was not the issue, since the cost of the surgery would be offset by the lesser expense of housing Kosilek in a women's prison and avoid the costs associated with Kosilek's attacks on her own body. It nevertheless thought that sex reassignment surgery was "medical attention that is above and beyond the community standard of care", noting that private insurance companies and Medicare do not cover it. It offered the "generally recognized standard of insurance coverage" as the standard to be used in providing medical services to the incarcerated. The DOC appealed Wolf's decision about sex reassignment surgery, Kosilek v. Spencer, to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard arguments on April 2, 2013. On January 17, 2014, a three-judge panel of that Court ruled 2–1 for Kosilek. The majority, Judges O. Rogeriee Thompson and William J. Kayatta, Jr., said that Kosilek's Eighth Amendment rights included "receiving medically necessary treatment ... even if that treatment strikes some as odd or unorthodox". In dissent Judge Juan R. Torruella said that denying the medical care in question did not violate Kosilek's Eighth Amendment rights because it did not "fall below society's minimum standards of decency" and "illustrate{d} neither an intent to harm nor the obstinate and unwarranted application of clearly imprudent care". However, the full First Circuit Court ruled against Kosilek 3–2 in December 2014. Later, in 2015, the Supreme Court chose not to hear the appeal, and by doing so rejected Kosilek's request for sex reassignment surgery. Michelle quietly had SRS in 2021 during the COVID pandemic. Personal life In January 2012, Kosilek self-published an autobiography while serving time in prison, Grace's Daughter. See also LGBT people in prison References Additional sources Nathaniel Penn, "Should This Inmate Get a State-Financed Sex Change Operation?", New Republic, October 30, 2013 James Phillips, "Gender Identity Disorder in Prison: Depending on a Diagnosis That Is Soon to Disappear?", Psychiatric Times, September 28, 2012 Jennifer Levi "Transgender Exceptionalism Should Not Cloud Legal Analysis," Jurist, October 16, 2012 External links Kosilek v. Maloney, District Court, August 28, 2002 Kosilek v. Spencer, District Court, September 4, 2012 Kosilek v. Spencer, First Circuit Court of Appeals, January 17, 2014 LGBT people from Illinois American people convicted of murder American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment American torture victims Intimate partner violence Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Massachusetts People convicted of