Hartley Neita, Contributor
The recent suggestion that repeat sex offenders should be clinically castrated to eliminate or otherwise drastically reduce their unwholesome urge has received very little public reaction. Indeed, it did not even last nine days on the gossip verandahs.
Perhaps this was because it came from an attractive, young professional; had it been proposed by a politician - whew, wow!
It may surprise those who know my support for hanging, that I have serious reservations about this form of punishment. Not for me is the thought that "it is worse than death"! No, the main reason for this ambivalence is my fear that removing this urge could have the effect of creating angry and violent men who might channel their frustration into deeds even more repugnant than the act they had committed for which they were punished.
It is because of this why I am not fully supportive of stem cell research. Scientists are people who have an insatiable desire to go beyond the horizon in their search to find the atoms of universal knowledge. In doing so, they have discovered the good and the bad. Splitting the atom, for example, has enabled man to produce electricity to power households and factories, as well as to destroy civilisations in the wink of an eye.
During World War II, the Nazi leaders of Germany tried to create the perfect German - blond hair, blue eyes, tall, handsome and physically strong.
Stud farm
The objective was to produce the perfect, master race. Through 'stud farm' methods they therefore matched men of pure German blood with Nordic women.
Recent reports are that the children produced through the special breeding programme do not know their parents and are bewildered about their heritage. A lost generation!
At the same time, children who were born blind, deaf or dumb, or were mentally or physically handicapped were exterminated. So, too, were millions of Jews. Black people would have been next.
Sex offenders, especially, in the act of raping old women and children, are considered reprehensible and repugnant. Over the years, throughout the world, many means of punishment have been prescribed.
Here in Jamaica, Dr. Basil Keane, a dentist by profession, moved a resolution at the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, seeking to have convicted rapists castrated. He wanted only a half-inch stump to be left as a reminder to these molesters of what had been now a memory for the remainder of their lives.
It was with reluctance that he accepted a proposal moved by Councillor Emerson Ginard Barrett for the punishment to be life imprisonment, but adding that they could be released "at an age when they cannot even rape a lizard."
