Recently, the Governor of Alabama signed legislation into law that allows for the chemical castration of convicted sex offenders who molested a child, 13 or younger. The sponsor of the bill has spent a decade trying to get legislation of this nature passed by the Alabama Legislature. It is interesting to note that his success came during a period when the state legislature passed the most restrictive abortion bill in the country. The Governor signed this bill as well. Additionally, during this same time frame, the state is being mandated by the federal government to address egregious issues in the state’s prison system that have characterized this system for decades. The recent publication of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s, Kids Count, has Alabama listed as the 44st state in child well-being. This ranking is two spots lower than last year, and further illustrates the state’s lack of attention to issues that affect the children of the state. It seems that the only time any action is taken is around issues that undermine the fabric of an enlightened society.
Having spent some time in and around child welfare systems throughout the country, I would be the first to agree that nothing is more heinous and heartbreaking than the sexual violation of a young child. This is especially so when an infant is the victim. Indeed, such violations must and have to be addressed, yet to do so by artificially attempting to control the perpetrator’s sexual impulses is not the answer. Study after study has shown that such behavior is not attributed to any sexual motivation, but to the desire and need to have control of another person. Chemically modifying a person’s testosterone level does not address the control and power issue. To view this law as a deterrent focuses on an erroneous expectation. It might play well for the uninformed, but it will not lead to the deterrence of the offender’s behavior. There needs to be more attention placed on providing treatment for sex offenders. There are treatment programs that have had a measure of success. Treating sex offenders is exceedingly challenging, but the emphasis should be placed on addressing this challenge.
The decision that the Alabama legislature and the governor reached can, certainly, be viewed as a “slippery slope.” When the “state” dictates what happens to a person’s body, where are the lines to be drawn? Back in 1973, the State of Alabama violated the bodies of the Relf sisters by having them sterilized to prevent them from becoming pregnant. At the time of their involuntary sterilization, Mary Allice was 14 and Minnie Lee was 12 and were mentally challenged. Both Mr. and Mrs. Relf were illiterate African-Americans subsisting on $150 per month. They were receiving services from the Montgomery Alabama Community Action Program and it was under the auspices of this agency that the sterilization took place. The sterilization of African-American women was common throughout the country. The family planning clinic of the Montgomery Community Action program sterilized a total of 11 females, 10 of whom were African-American. In the 1970’s 65% of sterilizations in North Carolina were done on African-American women, even though only 25% of the state’s population were African-American women. As ordered by the district court in North Carolina, a 14-year-old woman was subjected to a total abdominal hysterectomy because she was judged to be severely mentally retarded. The practice of eugenic sterilization was an attempt to eliminate the reproduction of genetically inferior women, such as the mentally disabled. It was believed that allowing the procreation of these individuals would undermine the genetically superior members of society. This can lead to a very scary proposition of governmental control.
During the reign of Hitler, there were programs that experimented with the genetic alteration of humans. Hitler believed that there were those who were “life unworthy of life” and included prisoners, degenerates, people with congenital and physical disabilities (feeble-minded, epileptic, schizophrenic, manic-depressive, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, deaf, blind), homosexuals, the idle, the insane, and the weak. He concluded that all of these, along with Jews and gypsies, should be “eliminated from the chain of heredity”. Over 400,000 of those in these categories were involuntary sterilized and 300,000 were killed. Hitler was convinced that he could create the perfect Aryan race by maintaining its purity through the culling of the undesirables. It was because of governmental control that such outcomes occurred.
There is a reason that in the United States we live by the principal of checks and balances, yet the scales can and do get tilted. When any government entity begins to engage in the alteration of one’s body, the potential for taking the control away from the individual and giving it to the state is possible. What might be the next “cause” that a politician feels embolden to pursue? Most recently it has been chemical castration and unheard of restrictions on abortions, earlier in the 20th century up until the 1970’s it was the practice of eugenic sterilization in the United States, and during the 1930’s and 1940’s it was the effort to purify the Aryan race. The current climate seems to be ripe for additional governmental intrusions.