Choosing Castration

"The kids all called me Uncle Paul," says the agonized former maintenance man. But despite his many visits to his friends and their nine children, Paul de la Haye's warmth warped one night last year; he sexually assaulted two of the young boys. He had had similar trouble before. After his conviction, he was sent to a California mental hospital for evaluation. Joseph Kenner, a divorced construction worker, had a history of aberrant sexual behavior involving both minor boys and girls. He had pleaded guilty to child molestation and was given a mental examination. Hospital officials pronounced each man "dangerous" with little or no hope of improvement. They were returned to court for sentencing, and San Diego Superior Court Judge Douglas P. Woodworth told them that they faced prison for an indeterminate period, possibly for life.

The two cellmates, perhaps remembering a practice common in San Diego before 1970, suggested a harrowing alternative. They each asked to be castrated and signed waivers releasing their lawyers, the judge and a court-appointed doctor from all liability for the operations. The surgery, said Judge Woodworth, would be "part of a rehabilitation program that might contribute to a possible grant of probation."

Scared and Shaking. Surgeon Alan H. Walther first said he would perform the operations, but after consulting with 50 fellow urologists, he balked. "Is it really a free decision when their only alternative is probably life imprisonment?" he asked. Moreover, though the operation, known medically as a bilateral orchidectomy, is a relatively simple procedure in which the testicles are removed from the scrotal sac, there is uncertainty about its efficacy. In one study of 244 castrates in Norway, only a small minority reported a lessening of their illegal sex behavior.

Nonetheless, three doctors have now volunteered to do the surgery, and Judge Woodworth, at least, seems satisfied. Last week he delayed the sentencing until the castrations are actually performed. It is either "this operation or the ultimate castration of locking a man up for life," says the judge. Kenner, 45, has declined to talk, but De la Haye is voluble about his choice. "Look, I'm 47 and don't have a wife," said the widower. "So I don't have much of a sex life to look forward to when I get out. Sure I'm scared. I'm shaking. But I'm willing to go through with anything if they give me my freedom back. I really don't think I'd do this kind of thing again, but I don't want to take the chance. It's like what they did in ancient times. You know, if a man steals, you chop his hand off. It's just like that."

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