Alabama has now decided to treat cases against children under 13 with more seriousness. The state approved chemical castration for convicted it above the age of 21, as a condition of parole in 2019, according to the Atlantic.
This means that those who were convicted for misusing children under the age of 13 will be injected with hormone-blocking substance before they leave penal institution and they will be injected with the medication until a judge, not a doctor, deems it necessary.
The Alabama bill’s sponsor, Representative Steve Hurst, initially argued in favor of the approach but instead, the chemical method was approved. It would make the testicles irrelevant. While the bill was being debated, Hurst said that if chemical castration “will help one or two children, and decrease that urge to the point, it’s worth it.” However, naysayers have argued that reduction in libido has got nothing to do with reducing cases against children.
A study published in APA PsychNet showed that “an early and persistent general propensity to act in an antisocial manner during childhood and adolescence” was a predictor of physical misuse. It don’t have higher levels and recent research found “no evidence to suggest there is anything chemically wrong.” Chemical castration works “not because it is treating an abnormal medical condition, but rather because it is inhibiting physical functioning in the same way it would for most humans,” the research read.
The bill was signed into law by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. The Republican governor had not indicated previously if she approved of the bill but signed it. The new law requires that convicted offenders undergo the reversible procedure, which should begin at least a month before they are to be released. They will have to continue undergoing it even when they are out of custody until a judge orders a stop, according to NBC News. “If they’re going to mark these children for life, they need to be marked for life,” Hurst told NBC affiliate WSFA of Montgomery.
“My preference would be if someone does a small infant child like that. “God’s going to deal with them one day.” Hurst wants to ensure that potential it offenders think twice and are deterred from acting on their thoughts of harming children.
Many people supported the law but there are others. State Rep. Juandallynn Givan believes that the law needs to be reconsidered as the desire to hurt children is psychological and not physical. “You have to deal with the mind of a predator,”
“You don’t worry about the physical parts. You have to deal with what makes them do what they do,” she added. Many believe it is about power and dominance than libido.
However, it has been recorded that castration makes it offenders unwilling or unable to commit future offenses, reported the Atlantic. “People say this is inhumane.
The Alabama Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed the law saying that mandating chemical castration could violate the U.S. Constitution’s 8th amendment, which forbids the use of cruel and unusual punishment. It’s about power, it’s about control,” said Randall Marshall, the executive director with the ACLU of Alabama.A similar bill was proposed in 2018 in Oklahoma but it was opposed strongly. In Moldova, the law was passed in 2012 but it was repealed in 2013 since it was a “roughness of fundamental human rights.”
This article was originally published on the explore.newsner.com