Keywords
bioethics
autonomy
France
How to Cite
Abstract
Sex offenses to children or young adolescents have become a growing public concern. Chemical castration is currently considered as the best available societal response to child sex abuse. It abolishes testosterone secretion, its effects are reversible and side effects are minor. It has been argued that offering convicted sex offenders with the possibility to be treated may be in contradiction with the bioethics principle of autonomy because the person has really no other choice -- the alternative is usually a lengthy confinement sentence. In view of this controversy, we explored lay people’s and physicians’ views regarding the acceptability of chemical castration. Fifty participants (among them five physicians) judged the acceptability of castration in each of 36 scenarios consisting of all combinations of four factors: aggressor’s age (21 vs. 41-year old); (b) victim(s)’ age (5, 8, or 14-year old); (c) aggressor’s psychiatric status (no psychiatric antecedents, suffers from sexual deviation, or recidivist); and (d) family’s attitude (hostile to any kind of castration vs. approve castration). Participants’ ratings of acceptability were, on the average, very high, and 68% of participants considered that chemical castration was fully justified in all the cases that were shown. A small minority (8%) considered that first time offenders of young adolescents, without psychiatric antecedents, should not be chemically castrated. Another minority position (24%) expressed doubts regarding chemical castration of first time offenders without antecedents but they never strongly opposed it. Implications for bioethics are discussed.
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