{"id":22423,"date":"2019-06-18T22:52:33","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T22:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=22423"},"modified":"2019-06-18T22:52:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T22:52:33","slug":"sex-offenders-to-be-castrated-in-parts-of-america-by-parker-malloy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=22423","title":{"rendered":"Sex Offenders To Be Castrated In Parts Of America by Parker Malloy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=18925&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Alabama Governor, Kay Ivey, last week signed a bill into law that will require criminals found guilty of some sex crimes against children to undergo chemical castration before they are granted parole.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Chemical castration involves using medication to lower a person&#8217;s hormone levels and limit their libido. Unlike surgical castration, it is reversible and does not affect a patient&#8217;s fertility.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Under Alabama&#8217;s new law, inmates would begin taking the medication a month before being paroled and continue receiving treatment once they&#8217;re free. Stopping treatment without the state&#8217;s permission would be a felony.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Several other states have similar laws, although it is optional rather than mandatory in some cases.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Why there&#8217;s debate: Advocates for chemical castration believe it is an effective way of protecting children from known sexual predators. &#8220;If they&#8217;re going to mark these children for life, they need to be marked for life,&#8221; said Rep. Steve Hurst, who introduced the bill in the Alabama House of Representatives.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Opponents of the bill say the procedure is barbaric and may violate the Constitution&#8217;s clause regarding cruel and unusual punishment.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">There are also concerns about the precedent set by a law that establishes government-mandated medical treatment, especially given the potential side effects.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Others argue that changing someone&#8217;s hormones does not address the true causes behind pedophilia.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">What&#8217;s next: Alabama&#8217;s new law will probably face a legal challenge on constitutional grounds in the near future, after an individual felon has been ordered by a judge to undergo the procedure.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Perspectives<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Ethical concerns are trumped by the need to protect children.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;When evil lurks and innocence is threatened, the right course of action is always to stand on the side of innocence. When a child has been brutalized and traumatized by a sick-minded adult, it is not the adult who deserves the top consideration.&#8221; \u2014 Cheryl K. Chumley, Washington Times<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Chemical castration does not address the root causes of sexual violence.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;In the same way that removing the hands of a bread thief could theoretically help prevent future crimes, rendering a person\u2019s genitals less virile makes certain acts less feasible. But unlike other therapeutic approaches, chemical castration (or surgical castration, for that matter) does not address the antisocial instincts that often underlie such crimes.&#8221; \u2014 James Hamblin, The Atlantic<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">One sex offender weighs in on the law.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;As far as the castration, they should do it. For some of those serious guys, that should be done but that kind of abuse is in their mind not in their body.&#8221; \u2014 Michael Weaver to WPMI-NBC News<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Chemical castration is more effective when used as part of rehabilitation rather than punishment.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;There are several U.S. states and a number of countries in Europe that use chemical castration for sex offenders but usually it is presented as being used for rehabilitation purposes. &#8230; I think if we start using interventions like this there is a high risk we will abuse them and use it in cases where they are extremely harmful.&#8221; \u2014 Medical ethics expert Thomas Douglas to Insider<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The treatment will only be effective with some offenders.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;There are multiple reasons for engaging in sexual offenses, only one of which is pedophilic interest. \u2026[In some cases] lowering their testosterone is not going to solve the problem.\u201d \u2014 Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Renee Sorrentino to Vox.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The bill relies on unsound medical science and ignores psychological factors.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;There is a need for a meaningful collaboration between legislative bodies and the scientific-medical communities in order to establish public policies and treatment protocols that can better ensure community safety. In conjunction with that effort, it should be appreciated that people who are sexually attracted to children need and deserve access to appropriate mental health treatment.&#8221; \u2014 Dr. Fred Berlin, The Hill<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The bill uses hatred of pedophiles to give the government power it shouldn&#8217;t have.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;On one hand, screw those monsters, etc. etc. etc. On the other, this is very clearly a human rights violation, and what will begin as a way to punish people who have carried out horrific crimes could one day be expanded to just about any group.&#8221; \u2014 Media Matters editor Parker Malloy, Twitter<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=18925&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alabama Governor, Kay Ivey, last week signed a bill into law that will require criminals found guilty of some sex crimes against children to undergo chemical castration before they are granted parole. Chemical castration involves using medication to lower a person&#8217;s hormone levels and limit their libido. Unlike surgical castration, it is reversible and does [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[5505,5503,5504,5502],"class_list":["post-22423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","tag-cheryl-k-chumley","tag-fred-berlin","tag-michael-weaver","tag-renee-sorrentino"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/usa.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-5PF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22425,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22423\/revisions\/22425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}