Turkey May Introduce Chemical Castration for Pedophile Child Abusers

The Turkish authorities have decided to toughen the punishment for pedophile child abusers in view of the crime's fourfold rise over the last decade.

Turkey's government will submit a law to parliament that would allow the court to order the chemical castration of child abusers, the country's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said Tuesday, as quoted by Turkey's Anadolu news agency.

According to the official, the measure was proposed "to reduce or eliminate" the sex drives of people convicted of sexually assaulting minors, while the law itself would be presented "within a few days."

Data provided by the Justice Ministry showed a fourfold increase in child sexual abuse over the last decade, with some 21,189 cases in 2016 compared to 3,778 in 2006, while more than 60 percent of suspects were convicted.

The move, however, has already been opposed by the Women's Assemblies Organization as "against human rights" and "a punishment that was distant from the modern law."

Chemical castration is carried out with the use of an aphrodisiac that reduces libido and sexual performance.

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Turkey tried to introduce the legislation back in 2016, but the country's highest administrative court overruled the attempt, citing the "vagueness" of how the law would be applied.

However, a recent child abuse case, in which a 20-year-old man was arrested for raping a 3-year-old girl at a wedding party, enraged the general public. 

Furthermore, earlier the same day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to impose the most severe punishment on pedophiles, saying that child abuse is "dynamite that will push our society to collapse."