11 NOVEMBER 1949, Page 18

A Drug and the Law Courts

'all administration of a recently-discovered drug which destroys issexual feeling is being ordered by courts up and down the country as a punishment in homosexual cases. Castration has previously been regarded as characteristic only of the most savage communities. Its use may or may not be justified in cases where gross cruelty is proven, but otherwise ethical and moral questions of the gravest nature arise. Nothing is known of the long term effect of this potent chemical, and it may well be destructive of what remains to the victim of life itself.—Yours

6 Bloomfield Crescent, Bath.