Poland Okays Castration for Pedophiles

F My Life: It's Funny, It's True, Except When It Happens to You

Poland is not messing around when it comes to pedophiles.

On Friday, the country approved new legislation making chemical castration mandatory for pedophiles in some cases. The move is, of course, getting lots of criticism from human rights groups.

Under the new law, pedophiles convicted of raping children under the age of 15 years or a close relative would have to be subjected to chemical therapy upon their release from prison.

"The purpose of this action is to improve the mental health of the convict, to lower his libido and thereby to reduce the risk of another crime being committed by the same person," the government said in a statement.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated at the end of 2008 that he was seeking obligatory castration for pedophiles, whom he called 'degenerates'. Tusk was quoted as saying that he didn't believe "one can use the term 'human' for such individuals, such creatures."

"Therefore I don't think protection of human rights should refer to these kind of events," Tusk also said.

His comments drew harsh criticism from human rights groups but he refused to retract them.

"Introducing any mandatory treatment raises doubts as such a requirement is never reasonable and life can always produce cases that lawmakers could never have even dreamt of," said Piotr Kladoczny from the Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights.

"If somebody is of sound mind, we punish him. If he is sick, we try to cure him -- that's how it works in Polish law. This bill introduces both approaches. As far as I know, this makes our law the strictest in Europe on this issue," Kladoczny said.

The bill, which also increases the length of jail terms sentences for rape and incest, still needs to be approved by the upper chamber of parliament. This, however, should be a formality as Tusk's Civic Platform party holds a majority of its 100 seats.