UK Might Make Chemical Castration Mandatory

The UK is planning to expand its voluntary chemical castration program for sex offenders to 20 prisons—and officials are considering making it mandatory. "I'm not squeamish about taking these further measures," Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Thursday, per the BBC. "It is vital that this approach is taken alongside psychological interventions that target other causes of offending, like asserting power and control," she added. The move is part of a push to reduce reoffending and cut the country's prison population, the AP reports. Mahmood said studies have shown that chemical castration can cut reoffending by 60%.

Chemical castration is delivered through drugs that limit invasive sexual thoughts and limit libido by reducing the production of testosterone, the BBC reports. It is voluntary for offenders in countries including Germany and Denmark—and mandatory for some sex offenders in Poland and some US states, including California and Alabama. Experts on the treatment—including the professor of forensic psychiatry who oversaw the UK's first pilot program—said they would not be part of any program that made it mandatory, the Guardian reports. "Doctors are not agents of social control," Dan Grubin said. "It would be ethically unsound to use medication to reduce risk rather than to treat a health indication." (More chemical castration stories.)