The Council of Ministers is discussing today, Wednesday, April 20, among other issues, President Pedro Castillo's proposal on implementing chemical castration for rapists and sexual abusers of children. Some ministers have already advanced their support and others disagreed with the measure, which was debated following the painful case of a a 3-year-old girl abducted and raped in Chiclayo.
“This atrocious and inhumane fact leads us to enormous reflection as a country to adopt stricter public policies of the State that safeguard the human rights of the most defenseless of our children, and chemical castration is an option, we cannot wait any longer,” the president said about the proposal.
This would not be the first time that this measure has been proposed in the country. In 2018, chemical castration for child rapists was unanimously approved by the Congress of the Republic; however, the Board of Spokespersons and the Standing Committee ended up withdrawing it.
This meeting will also evaluate the proposal of the Minister of Education, Rosendo Serna, to remove the restriction of one meter distance in educational institutions.
The Minister of Justice, Felix Chero, said that the standard will be A1 priority at the start of the meeting this Wednesday, April 20.
“We have the project ready, we must be approving it in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday and we must present it to the Legislative for analysis and discussion,” he said in an interview with Radio Exitosa, where he was in favor of the measure.
The Minister for Women, Diana Miloslavich, assured that the decision will be made in this Council of Ministers and that her ministry has not yet formed any opinion on chemical castration or the death penalty for rapists.
However, there are also ministers who have spoken out against the measure. Among them is the Minister of Health, Jorge López Peña, who said that all the costs of implementing it in the country should be evaluated in the Council. The same was said by the Minister of Education, Rosendo Serna, who said that an analysis of the entire proposal should be carried out and “not just an immediate reaction to a case”.
Interior Minister Alfonso Chávarry also disagreed with the drastic measure and pointed out that it should be reevaluated.
WHAT IS CHEMICAL CASTRATION?
Chemical castration is the administration of drugs that reduce libido and inhibit sexual desire. According to the specialist in urology and andrology, Alberto Tejada, for Infobae Peru, this is done through injections or administration of drugs on a periodic basis.
“This topic is being taken very lightly, since everyone believes that castration is done with the application of an injection and it is already castrated forever, but it is not so. These (doses) must be on a regular basis: daily in the case of the pill (estrogens) and bi-monthly in the case of injections (medroxyprogesterone). (...) The treatment has an effect after 10 - 15 days, that's when they will be most noticeable and is reversible if the drug is stopped, again the hormone functions reappear,” he said.
The doctor also explained Chemical castration has different consequences, such as changing mood, increased tendency to depression, weight gain, fluid retention, loss of muscle mass and increased body fat
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