Indonesian doctors refuse to castrate child-sex convict

The association representing medical doctors in Indonesia said Tuesday it would refuse to take part in chemically castrating the first convict sentenced to such punishment under the country's toughened up child-protection laws against pedophiles. In May, a court in East Java province's Mojokerta regency found Muh Aris bin Syukur guilty of sexually abusing nine children, including girls as young as 7, between 2015 and 2018, and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. The judges, in a landmark ruling, ordered that he be chemically castrated to prevent him from committing similar offenses.

The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) said it would have no role in the castration, even though such corporal punishment was sanctioned under amendments to child-protection laws in 2016. "We believe that child sex offenders should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but we cannot administer castrations because doing so will violate our oath to uphold the medical profession's code of ethics," Pudjo Hartono, who heads IDI's professional development council, told BenarNews.

source: Article 'Indonesian Doctors Refuse to Castrate Child-Sex Convict' by Putra Andespu; www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/indonesia-rights-08272019153613.html; BenarNews; 27 August 2019