Pro-Ecclesia has a excellent post that was engaging a debate that was started by a biggie in the Catholic blogsphere. Go see Is So-Called Chemical "Castration" for Sex Offenders Morally Licit? [UPDATED]
Yesterday as I posted I went to a hall meeting that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had in my home town. Bobby gave a review of the two sessions and what he had done since he had become Governor. One of the platforms he ran on was to be hard on people that molested children. In fact it was a big part of his ad campaign and indeed he acted on it.
A little background. I am quite familiar with aspects of this issue because of being on the prosecution side of this issue and later involved in assisting someone that had a contract with the state to do counseling sessions with sex offenders. I have been in many of a city in this state on a Saturday morning listening and talking to sex offenders. The program that I viewed as quite successful in a way dealt with having a sex offender recognize risk factors that would lead one re offend and to avoid them.
Now whenever this issue in the legislature and among politicians comes up I get a tad nervous. I posted on this at Attention Louisiana -There are sex Offenders and then THERE ARE SEX OFFENDERS .
Now at yesterday town meeting Bobby talked about the legislation passed and brought up the Chemical Castration law. Well of course people were happy about that. However even before I get to the Christian ethics of such laws I start to recoil as a conservative. In fact I have a initial gut reaction against such things and for some reason it give me more concerns than say State Execution. I really do not know why. I suppose I find the State talking about castrating people gives me the willies. Perhaps I wonder where this will lead next
Now back to the law. I think at least the Louisiana law is a tad mislabeled. It really does not castrate people in most cases with one peculiar exception. This is a news story that gives an overview of the law Jindal signs chemical castration bill. The Law which is now RS 14:43.6 has not been updated on the State legislative computers. However here is the Senate Bill that was signed that gives the text of the law in pdf form signed by the Governor (down load Text current)
A few things to mention here. Again in most cases this is not a Castration law!!! Which make me feel better. It is the administration of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) to certain sex
offenders. What is this drug? Well it actually one used by many women. It has shown promising signs of working with sex offenders.
The crimes , that thankfully were whittled down as it went through the legislature) are
R.S. 14:42 (aggravated rape), R.S. 14:42.1 (forcible rape), R.S. 14:43.2 (second degree sexual battery), R.S. 14:78.1 (aggravated incest), R.S. 14:81.2(E) (molestation of a juvenile when the victim is under the age of thirteen), and R.S. 14:89.1 (aggravated crime against nature)
The judge can order it on a first offense and it becomes mandatory on a second. As to actual physical castration we see in the law:
However, in lieu of treatment with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), the court may order the defendant to undergo physical castration provided the defendant file a written motion with the court stating that he intelligently and knowingly, gives his voluntary consent to physical castration as an alternative to the treatment.
I will say even this makes me a tad nervous. However as we see the Law itself is not really castrating anyone and in fact the treatment has to continue in order to suppress parts of a person sex drive.
I have not thought through this all the way but it appears to me that at first glance that this law on the whole does not violate Catholic principle or the ethical concerns. Though one might raise issues as to the "voluntary consent" of real physical castration.
Still I hope conservatives that are normally suspect of the power of the state( especially when the crowd is behind it) watch these laws with vigilance. The same goes to as to the ethical aspects of the laws. It might be sex offenders today and someone else tomorrow as a part of a social policy.
So as to the law many of my concerns looking at it for the first time are sort of met. However the fact that most Louisiana citizens think that this law is castrating people left and right and that they have appeared not to have thought of the political and ethical concerns of what they are supporting is sort of troubling.
I should note that I am not aware that the Catholic Bishops of Louisiana through their political arr, the Louisiana Conference raised any objection to this bill. You will note that it is not mentioned in their final Legislative update. See LEGISLATIVE UPDATE, Vol. 2, June 27, 2008 that is in PDF form currently on this page. If that is because they saw no moral problems or they wanted to avoid a PR Crisis (Past Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis) and decided to take a pass by not giving input I do not know.
Regardless, I hope Catholic, Christians, pro-lifers and all people that are mindful of past Govt abuses (let us also not forget about China's forced abortion policy) watch these laws and the debates behind them.
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