Toplumsal Cinsiyet Temelli 
etik Bağlamında Cinsel Suçluların Kimyasal Kısırlaştırılmaları Sorunu

The Problem of Chemical Castration of Sexual Offenders in the Context of Gender Based Ethics

Özge YÜCEL

Punishment or treatment of sexual offenders brings discussions on gender based ethics along. In this article, the problem will be approached from feminist theory, human rights and patient rights. Justification of criticisms differs upon replies to the question, whether judging chemical castration of offenders is punishment or treatment. If the reason of rape or other sexual crimes is explained with biological impulses, female body can hardly be removed from sovereignty of legislator. On the other hand, imposing a definite treatment method by law on patient and doctor violates patient rights. Also chemical castration violates human dignity, because it denies human will. Apart from these ideas, chemical castration is not a remedy for sexual offences. From different perspective, aggression should not be concerned with sexuality. Sexual offences appear by sex but arise from aggression or paraphilia. Humanist penalty policies and protective measures focused on human and human dignity should be followed against sexual offences.

Chemical Castration, Sexual Offences, Treatment, Punishment, Violence, Gender.

Cinsel suçluların cezalandırılması veya tedavisi meselesi toplumsal cinsiyete dayalı etik tartışmalarını beraberinde getirmektedir. Bu çalışmada meseleye feminist teori, insan hakları ve hasta hakları pencerelerinden yaklaşıldığı belirtilmelidir. Kimyasal kısırlaştırma konusunda getirilen eleştirilerin dayanağı, suçluların kimyasal kısırlaştırılmasının bir ceza mı yoksa tedavi olarak mı ele alındığı sorusuna verilecek yanıta göre değişmektedir. Cinsel saldırının ya da diğer cinsel suçların sebebi birtakım biyolojik uyaranlarla açıklanacak olursa kadın bedeni yasa koyucunun dayatmacı müdahalelerine karşı korunamaz. Diğer yandan, belirli bir tedavi yöntemini hastaya veya hekime hukuk eliyle dayatmak hasta haklarını ihlal eder. Kimyasal kısırlaştırma aynı zamanda insan onurunu da çiğner, çünkü insan iradesini inkâr eder. Bütün bunların yanında, kimyasal kısırlaştırma cinsel suçlarla mücadele için bir çare değildir. Farklı bir yaklaşımla ifade etmek gerekirse şiddet cinsellikle ilişkilendirilemez. Cinsel suçlar seks yoluyla kendini gösterebilir ama esasında saldırganlıktan, şiddetten ya da parafiliden kaynaklanır. Cinsel suçlarla mücadele edebilmek için yapılması gereken, insancıl ceza politikaları ve insan onuru odaklı koruyucu önlemler geliştirmektir.

Kimyasal Kısırlaştırma, Cinsel Suçlar, Tedavi, Cezalandırma, Şiddet, Toplumsal Cinsiyet.

INTRODUCTION

Chemical castration is suggested as a punishment for sexual offenders, especially for offenders who abuse children by laws in various countries. By chemical castration offenders’ sexual desires are reduced. Drugs used for chemical castration can reduce only males’ sexual desires and drives. From this aspect chemical castration is based on gendered discourse. Generally, chemical castration laws do not consider whether the offender is patient or not¹. Some laws do not even require either offender’s consent or a doctor’s approval. Chemical castration is suggested to satisfy retribution emotions of victim and victim’s family. Even though there happen to be legislative justification on grounds like rehabilitation; chemical castration has not proved successful in rehabilitating patients. Moreover there are many ethical and legal problems about chemical castration, which make up the main theme of this article.

I. WHAT IS CHEMICAL CASTRATION?

Castration is intervening sexual behaviors of a human, especially males. It is not new, in the history castration was used to entrust women to a man like “harem” in Ottoman Empire². Castration was used as a punishment of rape, like an eye for an eye^3,4. But at that time biological castration was used, not chemical castration. Surgical castration, to be sure, is irreversible⁵. Chemical castration, on the other hand, is used to decrease sexual desire and drive of sexual offenders. Chemical castration is not irreversible; when someone gives up taking drugs, he gains sexual desire again⁶. Castration is on the agenda; because punishment of sexual offenders has not been effective to avoid recidivism. After releasing s/he can reoffend. For this reason controlling sexual offenders is argued. One of the methods of controlling is to decrease sexual desire by chemical castration⁷. But chemical castration has a lot of risks and side effects⁸. Also chemical castration does not prevent reoffending surely. Also some drugs used for castration harm fertility of women. Chemical castration laws are accepted and executed in some countries⁹.

II. PUNISHMENT OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Sexual crime is type of violence. However sexual crimes cause more public indignation than other violence types¹⁰. Especially when the victim of the crime is a child younger than 12 years old, some people react harshly. They demand capital punishment of the offender¹¹. Human dignity or the rights of offenders are discounted when the crime is a sexual crime¹². But sometimes victim is punished instead of offender. Some legislators prescribe reduction of prison term if offender and victim get married. Patriarchal legal system pays special attention to female body integration and supports this attention with religion, morality or custom. Morality based gender accepts that female body should be protected against men. As a result of this acceptance patriarchal system accepts women as victim of sexual offences and men as offender of sexual offences. For this reason sexual abuse of boys are less reported than girls. So legal system provides punishment and measures for men. Notably in the light of this view erections and desires are regarded as the main reason of sexual offences. But sexual offenders use force or misuse victim’s childhood or being simpleminded or weakness. The problem is violating someone’s physical integrity without valid consent. In other words the reason is aggression. So physical or psychological situations are not excuse for aggression.