Chemical Castration and the Right to Generate Ideas: Does the First Amendment Protect the Fantasies of Convicted Pedophiles
![handle is hein.journals/mnlr81 and id is 1695 raw text is: Note
Chemical Castration and the Right to Generate Ideas:
Does the First Amendment Protect the Fantasies of
Convicted Pedophiles?
G.L. Stelzer*
The practice of castration' has a culturally universal and
ancient history.2 Biblical,3 mythological,4 and historical5 refer-
ences to castration indicate its popularity as a method of pun-
ishment.6 Today, the punitive characteristics of castration are
* J.D. Candidate 1998, University of Minnesota Law School; B.A. 1995,
Northwestern University.
1. Castration is the severance of the testicles, and should not be con-
fused with demasculinization, which refers to castration and the removal of
the penis and scrotum. Georg K. Stiirup, Castration: The Total Treatment, in
SEXUAL BEHAVIORS: SOCIAL, CLINICAL, AND LEGAL ASPECTS 361, 361 (H.L.P.
Resnik & Marvin E. Wolfgang eds., 1972).
2. Nikolaus Heim & Carolyn J. Hursch, Castration for Sex Offenders:
Treatment or Punishment? A Review and Critique of Recent European Litera-
ture, 8 ARCHIVES SEXUAL BEHAv. 281, 281 (1979); Stfdrup, supra note 1, at
362; Edward S. Tauber, Effects of Castration upon the Sexuality of the Adult
Male, 2 PSYCHOSOMATIC MED. 74, 74 (1940).
3. See Matthew 19:12 ([T]here are some eunuchs which were made
eunuchs of men.).
4. See Stiirup, supra note 1, at 362-63 (recounting Zeus's castration of
his father, Cronos, for swallowing his brothers).
5. See Heim & Hursch, supra note 2, at 281-82 (discussing castration as
a punishment for rape or adultery in the Middle Ages, under the doctrine of
jus talonis, or an eye for an eye); id. at 282 (describing castration as used to
punish sex offenders under the Nazi regime); Stiirup, supra note 1, at 363-64
(discussing castration as punishment for black men in Kansas Territory who
raped, attempted to rape, or tried to force marriage upon white women); id. at
364 (discussing castration as used to punish sex offenders under the Nazi re-
gime); Tauber, supra note 2, at 75 (discussing castration of male captives by
their conquerors).
6. Castration has served preventative purposes as well. Eastern rulers
castrated guardians of their harems as a precautionary measure. Tauber, su-
pra note 2, at 75. Eighteenth century churches tacitly sanctioned castration
to preserve the angelic elegance of the choir-boys' voices. Id. Eugenic cas-
tration checked the reproduction of criminals, the feeble-minded, and the in-
sane. Id. at 76.
1675](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/mnlr81&div=61&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Chemical Castration and the Right to Generate Ideas: Does the First Amendment Protect the Fantasies of Convicted Pedophiles
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