A lawmaker in Alabama wants paedophiles to be castrated before being allowed to leave prison. State Rep. Steve Hurst has been proposing that sex offenders be either chemically or surgically castrated since 2011 and now he says they should pay for the procedure themselves as well. RT reports: Hurst has filed legislation that would legally require offenders convicted of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 12 to be surgically castrated before being released from prison. HB 365 is something of a passion project for Hurst, but this year he added an additional twist, requiring sex offenders pay for the operation. Surgical castration removes a man’s testicles and could become the harshest penalty for sex offenders in the country. Internationally, laws regarding physical castration have received severe pushback. In 2009, the Council of Europe’s Anti-Torture Committee criticized the Czech Republic for surgically castrating sex offenders. The committee called it, “invasive, irreversible and mutilating.” In 2014, that same committee asked Germany to stop offering surgical castration as an option for sex offenders. In Germany, surgical castration is only performed upon request by the sex offender and is rarely used. Although nine states have variations of castration laws, all the current [...]