Chemical castration for pedophiles in the pipeline in Turkey: report

Dec. 31, 2012
(FC minus 18:12hrs)

In addition to tougher jail sentences, Turkey is considering chemical castration of pedophiles. (Reuters)

By Al Arabiya

The Turkish government is considering chemical castration for sex offenders who target miners, a local newspaper reported Sunday.

The draft proposal, titled “Draft Law on Reproductive Health and Child Abuse,” is in the process to be made into a law. However, it doesn’t contain details on how to implement chemical castration on pedophiles, the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported.

The daily said that the Ministry of Heath will decide on the implementation.

The draft, approved by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, proposes “medical intervention for child abusers and convicts clinically diagnosed as pedophiles,” without going into detail.

Other expected changes to be made in the new law is to take off the requirement to have an expert report from the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) in rape cases to prove that the victim’s psychology has been negatively affected.

While sexual offenders will receive longer sentences in the proposal, pedophiles and offenders sexually targeting people with disabilities will also receive tougher sentences.

The draft will keep the 10-week legal period for abortions and 20-week in case of rape victims the same. But in the new proposal, doctors are urged to convince the victims to back off from having abortions. Doctors who perform illegal abortions will also face up to eight years in prison.

The United States, Britain and Germany have already experimented with chemical castration of rapists and molesters, especially serial offenders and pedophiles.

Unlike surgical castration, where the testicles are removed, chemical castration does not castrate or sterilize the person, but works only to reduce the offender’s libido and sexual activity.

Meanwhile, in India where are a recent deadly gang-rape of a university student incident angered and appalled the nation, pleas for chemical castration were made clear.

Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau, stirred uproar, when she urged legislators to consider chemical castration as a punitive measure for rapists, especially pedophiles.