Kaine Vetoes Bill To Study Castration

Kaine said he had no choice but to veto the bill after the General Assembly left town, which means that legislators cannot attempt to override him. Kaine said he will direct the appropriate state agencies "to review, on an ongoing basis, the appropriate options for sex offender treatment."

J. Tucker Martin, a spokesman for Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R), said that McDonnell does not object to Kaine's decision.

"We believe there are some legal issues that need to be addressed and also issues of the efficacy of the practice," Martin said. "There are some real questions that need to be answered before we could endorse castration as a possible treatment."

But Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic in Baltimore and a professor in the medical school, said he does not understand why Kaine vetoed the bill. Berlin said that castration is "a sexual appetite suppressant" that can be used "for those sex offenders who seem to be driven by abnormal sexual cravings."

"I do find it difficult to understand what the harm would have been to look into this as a way of releasing some of these people from confinement," Berlin said.

He and several other health professionals also said that chemical, not surgical, castration is a more humane and widely used procedure.

Removing the testicles limits the production of testosterone. Chemical castration can achieve basically the same effect for certain periods of time through the use of hormone-based drugs.

Hanger said he and other GOP lawmakers sought physical castration because it is permanent.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, eight states allow the medical castration of some offenders. California, Florida and Texas give sex offenders the choice between chemical and surgical castration.

Like many states grappling with high-profile cases of sex offenders who commit crimes once out of prison, Virginia has moved aggressively in recent years to keep such offenders incarcerated.

In 1999, Virginia started its confinement program, which is designed to keep the most violent sex offenders off the streets once they leave prison. At the attorney general's request, a judge can order an inmate into a treatment facility if he is considered a public threat.

Forty-seven inmates have been confined under the program, which the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled constitutional.

It costs the state about $420,000 over 20 years to keep a sex offender in prison, but it could cost as much as $2.2 million in that time to house an offender in a treatment facility.

Hanger estimates that the program will soon cost taxpayers at least $50 million a year. He said he thinks that locking someone up for life is "more inhumane" than giving that person the option of castration.

"It's a simple operation that can provide a cure for many of these individuals, and taxpayers are relieved of a burden," Hanger said.