It's not easy being an American parent. Any day, it seems, a pedophile could move into your neighborhood, and there isn't a thing you can do about it (well, other than lock your doors or try to sell your house ... but in this market, with a sex offender next door, let me just say good luck to you there). If only there was something we could do about it ... like maybe chemical castration?
Oh, it's controversial as all heck, but using testosterone-suppressing hormones to curb the sex drive is considered by some experts to be the best way to stop a criminal from sexually abusing kids. And the Eastern European country of Molodova just joined a select few around the world that are willing to do what American parents only wish we could. Can I get a hell yeah?
The Moldovan government has apparently had a problem with sex offenders moving into the country and abusing kids. So they passed a law that requires foreigners who move in and Moldovan nationals with a pedophile charge on their record to receive shots that will kill their sex drive. They join the likes of the Czech Republic and Poland in making this a requirement for these type of offenders, which has drawn a lot of criticism from human rights groups.
Personally? I'd like to send these Moldovan legislators a big bottle of vodka, and give the human rights activists a punch in the nose. They're the reason American parents can't convince most American governments to make this move.
Yes, I'm usually a liberal and all rah, rah, human rights! But there's something about the abuse of a child that strikes me as so repugnant I automatically see red. It's a mix of anger and fear that makes it hard for me to sit idle and not do something to the monster in our midst.
Fortunately I'm relatively non-violent, so although there is a pedophile in my neighborhood (dude, I know you're there, and we are ALL watching you now), I'm not the type to burn down a house or start throwing bricks through windows. Instead, I suffer in silence. More to the point, my child suffers because now that I know there's a creep in town who raped a little girl just three years older than her, I fear letting her out on her bike alone.
So let's talk about whose rights have been violated. For starters, there is that poor defenseless girl who was raped by this sicko. And now there are all the little kids in my neighborhood who are at risk of a man who is at an extremely high risk of once again hurting children ... who cannot run and play and be normal kids because he's here, lurking.
Still think it's such a bad thing to make someone who has been convicted of abusing kids undergo medical treatment that will protect them? Yeah ... me neither.
What's your take on chemical castration?
Image via amanderson2/Flickr