Louisiana becomes first state to legalize surgical castration for people convicted of raping minors

BATON ROUGE, LA - As of Thursday, August 1st, people over the age of 17 in the state of Louisiana who have been convicted of raping a child under the age of 13 can now be ordered by a judge to have surgical castration.

According to WAFB, the law already allows judges to issue an order of chemical castration, but now they have the option of choosing either chemical or surgical. The bill's author, Senator Regina Barrow (D-Baton Rouge) said in a statement, "At the end of the day I hope that kids know that they can feel safer because there will be some real though penalty actions that will occur when somebody violates their innocence."

The law reportedly also includes the crime of pornography involving juveniles as an underlying offense and the law is not limited to the male population. Sen. Barrow said, "Unfortunately, females are molesting children as well and that's a very sad thing to see and to hear. As a matter of act, one of the cases I was reading not too long ago, I read a case where that was actually happening with guards with children at a particular facility."

According to NPR, surgical castration is defined as a permanent procedure that involves the surgical removal of the testicles or ovaries ostensibly to stop the production of sex hormones. 

There are, of course, some circumstances where the convicted offender might not qualify for the surgical castration, which would ultimately be a decision left up to the judge and a doctor at the State Department of Corrections. Additionally, an offender could refuse to get the surgery, but would then be sentenced to another three to five years without the possibility of getting early release. The law does not allow anyone under the age of 17 found guilty of certain aggravated sex crimes to receive the punishment.

Barrow said that she ultimately hopes that at the very least this new law will work as deterrent for potential child rapists. Attorney Jill Craft, however, says that while she understands what the law is intended to do, she believes that it will be challenged in court, arguing that it falls under the Eighth Amendment of cruel and unusual punishment. 

Craft said, "The problem with something like this is multifaceted. It kinda harkens back to if you steal from me, I'm gonna cut off your hand. Okay, well how come we don't do that in the United States, well because it's cruel and unusual punishment." She said that in most incidents of forcible rape, the act is done not so much out of some sick sexual desire, but something much more sinister. 

Craft added, "It's not the notion of having sex with somebody for some sort of pleasure. It is the notion of domination and control. I understand what they were trying to accomplish, it's just this is not the way." According to Craft, aside from the state of Louisiana, the only other places on the planet that allow surgical castration are Madagascar, the Czech Republic, and one state in Nigeria. Such laws have been strongly criticized by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations.

One of the drafters of the bill, Democratic state Rep. Delisha Boyd said that she was inspired to propose the bill after seeing a disturbing article from a local newspaper about a 51-year-old man who was arrested for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old boy. The story revealed that the man was a registered sex offender and in 2007 was arrested for allegedly raping a five-year-old.

Boyd said, "Some of the critics say, you know, that's cruel and unusual punishment. Well, I disagree. I think the cruel and unusual punishment was the rape of that five-year-old boy."