In late May, President Joko Widodo issued a presidential decree enacting tough new punishments for criminals convicted of sexually assaulting children, including executions and chemical castration for the worst offenders. While most of the public applauded the new laws, some critics described it as a “knee-jerk reaction” to the national outcry over a 14-year-old girl who was brutally raped and murdered in Sumatra, while others described the punishments as being motivated more by revenge than justice.
Now the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) has announced that the association and its members refuse to be involved in the castration of those convicted of sexual crimes, stating that it would be a violation of their medical ethics.
“We are not opposed to the regulation adding castration as a possible punishment. However, the injections should not be administered by a doctor,” IDI chairman Ilham Oetama Marsis said as a press conference yesterday, as quoted by Kompas.
Marsis was careful to make clear that IDI supports the government’s policy to give the harshest penalty to the perpetrators of sexual abuse against children. However, at the same time the organization refused to be involved in actually executing the castrations.
The chairman of the Honorary Council of Medical Ethics (MKEK), Dr. Priyo Sidipratomo, said that doctors would not use their knowledge for non-humanitarian purposes. A principle that was an important part of their professional oath.
“Doctors are charged with only using their skills for the benefit of humanity. Even in war, doctors must save humanity, even if it is the enemy,” said Priyo.
IDI officials recognized their position could pose a serious problem for the implementation of the law, as only doctors have the knowledge and abilities to safely administer the injections needed to carry out chemical castrations. At the press conference, they argued that there was no evidence that castration acts as a deterrent against sexual crimes and that it would be more effective for the government to punish criminals with longer sentences.
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