美国国家公共电台 NPR Court To Rule On Sex Reassignment Surgery For Idaho Inmate

 

AMANDA PEACHER, BYLINE¹: One late afternoon in September 2015, a transgender inmate³ named Adree Edmo left a note in her prison cell in Idaho. The note read, I do not want to die, but I am a woman, and women do not have these. Then she attempted to castrate herself.

LORI RIFKIN: Because she isn't receiving adequate treatment...

PEACHER: That's Lori Rifkin, Edmo's lead attorney.

RIFKIN: ...This distress⁴ has led her, twice now, to attempt to castrate herself to stop the testosterone from circulating in her body.

PEACHER: Edmo is a member of the Shosone-Bannock Tribes and identifies as two-spirit, which is a Native American term for people who don't conform to one gender². She's serving time for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy when she was 22. Prison providers diagnosed her with gender dysphoria in 2012. Rifkin says Edmo is not being adequately treated.

RIFKIN: What Ms. Edmo requires is gender confirmation⁵ surgery, and that's what she needs to receive.

PEACHER: That need for surgery is at the heart of this case. Amy Penkin manages the Transgender Health Program at Oregon Health and Science University.

AMY PENKIN: Gender dysphoria is used as a clinical diagnosis⁶ of the experience of someone whose gender experience is not in alignment⁷ with the gender or sex they were assigned at birth.

PEACHER: Not every transgender person experiences gender dysphoria, but for those who do, there's a spectrum⁸ of treatment options, from changing their hair and clothing, to hormone⁹ treatment. And in persistent¹⁰, well-documented cases, gender confirmation surgery might be medically necessary, also known as sex reassignment surgery. When Edmo's requests for surgery were denied by the prison, she sued. At the district court level, the judge ruled in her favor. Governor Brad Little of Idaho appealed.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRAD LITTLE: Allowing this case to sit there, I was afraid that it would lower the bar as to what we had - what the state of Idaho had to pay for.

PEACHER: And the state argues there's disagreement among medical professionals about whether the surgery is necessary. Idaho Department of Correction's Chief Psychologist Wally Campbell says he can't comment on Edmo's case because it's pending¹¹ litigation. But more generally, Campbell says the bar for surgery is high. An inmate would need to be experiencing significant distress from gender dysphoria.

WALLY CAMPBELL: In my mind, doing a irreversible medical procedure would require a higher level of distress than hormone replacement¹² therapy.

PEACHER: Edmo's lawyers say she's on hormones¹³ and still tried to castrate herself, which is a clear sign of distress. Lori Rifkin says denying Edmo the surgery constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

RIFKIN: When government entities¹⁴ hold people in prisons or jails, they're required to provide adequate and necessary medical care because their freedom has been taken away, and they can't seek such care for themselves.

PEACHER: And Rifkin says Edmo's need is as clear as treating a cancer patient.

RIFKIN: If somebody requires surgery, or chemotherapy or radiation to shrink their tumor¹⁵, that is what we give them.

PEACHER: If the 9th Circuit agrees, Adree Edmo will be the first inmate to get gender confirmation surgery through the courts and could make it easier for other inmates¹⁶ with gender dysphoria to do so. It also means Edmo would be transferred to an Idaho women's prison after her surgery. She's scheduled to be released in 2021. For NPR News, I'm Amanda Peacher in Boise, Idaho.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And Amanda's story came to us from the Mountain West News Bureau, a public media collaboration¹⁷.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

4 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

5 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

6 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

7 alignment   

n.队列；结盟，联合

参考例句：

• The church should have no political alignment.教会不应与政治结盟。
• Britain formed a close alignment with Egypt in the last century.英国在上个世纪与埃及结成了紧密的联盟。

8 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

9 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

10 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

11 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

12 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

13 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

14 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

15 tumor   

n.（肿）瘤，肿块(英)tumour

参考例句：

• He was died of a malignant tumor.他死于恶性肿瘤。
• The surgeons irradiated the tumor.外科医生用X射线照射那个肿瘤。

16 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。