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ENGLAND'S M.P.'s CONSIDER CASTRATION AS CURE FOR SEX OFFENDERS

A Copenhagen correspondent writing for the London OBSERVER for 7-4-65 reports that certain Members of Parliament are urging that England follow the lead of Scandinavian countries and Holland in the use of castration "for persistent sex offenders who are potentially dangerous to the public." In the latter countries, "voluntary castration has been available for many years within the penal system, and in some cases outside of it, for private citizens with severe sexual problems," the OBSERVER goes on to say. In the course of studies and experiments carried on at length by Dr. Georg Sturup, medical superintendent at the Herstedvester detention insti-

tution near Copenhagen, voluntary

castration has been used on certain types of sex offenders such as rapists and pederasts, whose compulsions have resisted treatment through psychiatric methods. Surgery is brief and simple, and since only fully-matured adults are in-

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volved, physical changes are "said to be slight. About a third of them, Sturup says, can still manage intercourse; but since most of the compulsion has gone, the castrate can usually choose to avoid its illegal forms. . . Only 2% of castrates commit another sexual offense again after release, compared with 40% of non-castrates." ONE is obliged to underline that, in all of this, the fundamental ethical question is, "Who is potentially dangerous tentially dangerous to the public?", or, more precisely, "What types types of sexual behavior are potentially dangerous to the public?" Existing answers to this question are what dictate our present penal codes in the area of sex conduct. There are those who have advocated castration of homosexuals and even worse measures; so let the homosexual reader do

his part to make sure that such advocates are never permitted to make present laws more unjust than they are already. This can be done by supporting all those agencies who are working toward the general goal of equitable legislation in the field of adult sexual behavior.