Social problems include that chemical castration may not guarantee human rights for involuntary cases performed without informed consent of the sexual offender, and thus may be regarded as only punishment and not treatment. Chemical castration has been executed without informed consent in Korea and in three states of the Unites States (
2). Additionally, increasing the population of sexual offenders who undergo chemical castration will create tremendous socioeconomic burdens. It costs 5 million won (USD 4,650) per person annually for medication and monitoring when leuprolide acetate injections are administered every 3 months in Korea.
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Sexual crimes are a significant public health problem, efforts to prevent recidivism and protect the community are worthy, and public safety can take precedence over criminal's rights. Chemical castration reduces recidivism effectively when offered to sexual offenders within the context of simultaneous comprehensive psychotherapeutic treatment. However, chemical castration under the current laws is vaguely positioned between punishment and treatment due to lack of informed consent by the recipient, and so remains a problematic issue for medical ethics. Therefore, physicians are obligated to very closely monitor any potential treatment complications in sexual offenders undergoing chemical castration.