Lawmakers in Alabama just passed a bill to chemically castrate people who molested children under the age of 13.
The new law could make people convicted of child sexual abuse undergo chemical castration.
It was state representative Steve Hurst who introduced House Bill 379. He said to WIAT: “I had people call me in the past when I introduced it and said don’t you think this is inhumane?
“I asked them what’s more inhumane than when you take a little infant child, and you sexually molest that infant child when the child cannot defend themselves or get away, and they have to go through all the things they have to go through.
“If you want to talk about inhumane – that’s inhumane.”
Instead of removing a person’s genitals, chemical castration involves pumping of drugs that pull their estrogen or testosterone levels down so they do not get sexual urges.
However, there are also concerns that chemical castration won’t work for everyone.
Trent Holmberg, a forensic psychiatrist, wrote a paper about chemical castration and said: “Chemical castration is probably a little bit misleading because it really just reduces the hormone levels and it’s definitely not a magic bullet to prevent sex offenses.
“The research suggests there are a lot of side effects to giving hormone suppressing medication to men and we don’t have a good sense of exactly how common those side effects are and how debilitating and life effecting, but there is potential that it can cause a number of unwanted side effects and that’s one of the big concerns.”
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