Chelmical Castration
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This paper is an argument in favor of the use of chemical castration as a means of dealing with male sex offenders, especially pedophiles. Since the early 1980s, scientists and the courts have experimented with a method of inhibiting the testosterone levels of convicted rapists, using injections of medroxyprogesterone acetate, commonly known as Depo-Provera. Developed for women to control excessive menstrual bleeding and regulate contraception, Depo-Provera has been used in men to reduce aggressive tendencies and repress the sex drive. Although a controversial technique, this form of treatment is reversible, unlike physical castration, and some courts have been willing to consider it as an option in repeat cases; California became the first state in the nation to mandate this treatment as a condition of parole for repeat child molesters. This paper argues for such legislation to become a national program, as a means of dealing with a grave and ongoing problem. Late in 1983, a judge in South Carolina made national headlines when he offered a controversial option to three rapists who had pled guilty to a particularly brutal crime. The three had thrown themselves on the mercy of the court, in hope that their status as first-time offenders would gain them leniency. Instead, the judge sentenced each to the maximum 30 year term. He offered them one alternative, however. He declared that, if each would agree to being physically castrated, he would allow them to go on pro
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ve this devastating act. While many of these compulsions are grounded in psychopathology, some can also be attributed to physical causes. Many rapists have been shown to produce higher levels of testosterone than are normal in the population as a whole. This has led scientists to suggest that reducing testosterone levels would reduce violent and aggressive tendencies of all kinds, at least in some instances.
The first proposals to reduce testosterone levels suggested physical castration as the method of choice. Surgical removal of the testicles meant excising the glands which produce the male hormone, often replacing them with artificial testes to maintain visual and physical continuity. However, most courts were reluctant to impose such a drastic and permanent solution.
Depo-Provera offered a different kind of medical solution, one dubbed "chemical castration." In men, Depo-Provera reduces testosterone by inhibiting hormones in the brain which stimulate its production by the testes. In the early 1980s, Depo-Provera had not yet gained FDA approval for use as a contraceptive in the United States, though it was already in use in numerous other countries. Nevertheless, the FDA did allow prescription "for other purposes, i
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Fred Berlin, Andrea Dworkin, South Carolina, Richard Seely, Depo-Provera Developed, Nevertheless FDA, Psychiatric Society, , Linda Ledray, chemical castration, Seattle Times, testosterone levels, sex offenders, child molesters, treatment sex offenders, first-time offenders, effective responses, opponents argue, aggressive tendencies, rape crime, courts continue,
Approximate Word count = 1579
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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