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Back to barbarism: Russian pedophiles to be castrated

Barbaric and anachronistic punishments – straight out of medieval times – of stoning, lashing, amputation of limbs, mutilation and beheading are not only common but are enshrined in the law of several Islamic countries. Of course even nations which pride themselves on their civilised behaviour still resort to the most exquisite tortures they can devise – whether at Abu Ghraib or at Guantanomo. But at least in most countries barbaric behaviour and cruel and unusual punishments are not enshrined in law.

Now Russia in a burst of machismo is trying to compete with Saudi Arabia.

Svenska Dagbladet reports:

The Russian Duma today approved a proposal to castrate pedophiles by 332 votes to zero. President Dmitry Medvedev had introduced the proposal in May this year. This means that anybody convicted of offenses against children under 13 years and deemed to be mentally ill will be subjected to chemical castration. 

The law must still be approved by the Senate before it becomes effective. Russia is now  one of the few countries where castration may be carried out as a punishment and joins Poland which is the only country in Europe which does so.

A measure of how civilised we really are must be the extent to which we allow or tolerate or excuse or justify barbaric behaviour. And physical punishment to be imposed on the mentally ill sounds to me like a society which is taking an easy way out and abdicating its collective responsibility.

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This entry was posted on October 4, 2011 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Behaviour, Russia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Back to barbarism: Russian pedophiles to be castrated”

  1. Brandon Mc Neil's avatar Brandon Mc Neil Says:
    October 6, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    If you have a pro raping little kid speech i want to hear it… the whole point of laws is that a good amount of people cant be civilly responsible enough to not do atrocious things and there are few things more atrocious a man can do then to sexually assault a minor..
    you forever alter a child’s life through this act and no amount of penance can undo that. the least society can do is make sure that it doesn’t happen again. there is a difference between torture and prevention of future crimes which you fail to recognize and the re-occurrence of sex based crimes is alarming

    you are in the minority with your beliefs that it is barbaric, right along side those who steal innocence from children.

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