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VAN KÜCK - Germany (N° 35968/97)
Communicated May 2000
http://www.dhcour.coe.int/eng/informationnotes/INFONOTENo18.htm
INFORMATION NOTE No. 18
on the case-law of the Court
May 2000
ARTICLE 8
RESPECT FOR PRIVATE LIFE
Refusal by courts to order reimbursement of costs of sex
change: communicated.
VAN KÜCK - Germany (N° 35968/97)
[Section IV]
The applicant, a male to female transsexual, brought an action against the health insurance company to which she was affiliated and claimed reimbursement of the pharmaceutical expenses of her hormone treatment. She also requested a declaratory judgment to the effect that the defendant company would be liable to reimburse 50% of the expenses of the gender reassignment operations and further hormone treatment. In the light of medical evidence, the Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s claims, considering notably that hormone treatment and gender reassignment could not be deemed a necessary medical treatment in her case. She unsuccessfully appealed against this decision to the Court of Appeal which found that she had caused her disease deliberately. The court relied on medical evidence gathered during proceedings concerning her forenames and drew the conclusion that the applicant had decided to become a woman as a result of her feeling of inferiority towards other men and had forced this evolution by taking female hormones without a prescription. The Federal Constitutional Court refused to admit the applicant’s constitutional complaint.
Communicated under Articles 6(1), 8 and 14.