In Poland ‘Chemical castration is constitutional’

According to Poland’s Minister of Justice Zbigniew Cwiakalski, chemical castration of paedophiles is in accordance with article 40 of the Polish constitution.

Yesterday, MPs from the left addressed a parliamentary question to the prime minister, asking him how the government plans to reconcile the obligatory castration of paedophiles with the constitution, which stresses that nobody can be submitted to torture or cruel, inhumane or humiliating treatment and punishment.

The call for castration of sex offenders, made by Prime Minister Donald Tusk last week comes in the wake of the so-called ‘Polish Fritzl’ case where a man has been accused of long-term abuse of his daughter and fathering two children consequently.

The justice minister stressed that chemical castration is not tantamount to surgical castration and is not, therefore, corporal punishment. "It is a reversible process," he stressed and explained that paedophiles would be merely given a drug lowering their sex drive.

Cwiakalski said that doctors will decide about possible chemical castration. The offenders will be sent for treatment only after they serve their prison sentence. He explained that paedophiles should be taking medicine costing 500-600 zloty a month.

Link