The chemical castration of repeat sex offenders is a form of therapy, not a punishment, and it does not need to be written into law, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker said yesterday.
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said that in a number of public hearings organized to discuss amendments to the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act (性侵害犯罪防治法), a majority of specialists and academics agreed that the chemical castration of repeat sex offenders should be considered therapeutic intervention. If that definition receives broad public acceptance it would not be necessary to insert a new clause into the law to authorize its use in specific cases, Pan said.
Echoing Pan’s views, Food and Drug Administration Deputy Director Wang Tsung-hsi (王宗曦) said chemical castration is purely a medical matter. Since chemical castration is not part of the penalty regime for offenders there was no need to amend the law to implement it, he said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
However, Ministry of Justice Chief Secretary Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said the Criminal Law would have to be amended in order to carry out the chemical castration of sex offenders.
If chemical castration is to be used as a form of punishment, the penal code must first be amended, Tsai said.
According to Pan, legislators from across party lines have agreed to prioritize the screening of revisions to the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act.
“The KMT will see to it that the amendments are passed in the next legislative session,” Pan said.
The issue of chemical castration was raised in March after a repeat sex offender allegedly raped and murdered a teenage girl shortly after his release from prison. The man was released in February and was scheduled for his first rehabilitation counseling session on April 1.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS