But vasectomy, though surgically simple, and a less violation of
sentiment than castration, cannot be justified except in exceptional
cases.

Neither of these operations makes the subjects of them altogether or at
once impotent, certainly not for years. It sterilizes and partly unsexes
them and in the end completely so.

But the physical and mental changes that follow the operation in the
young adolescent are grave and serious, and a violent outrage upon the
man's nature and sentiment.

Society can hope for nothing but evil from the man she forcibly unsexes;
but if he must be kept in durance vile for the whole of his life there
is little need for such an operation.

The criminal cases bad enough to justify this grave and extreme measure
should be incarcerated for life.

The cases, it has been thought, that fully justify this operation are
those guilty of repeated criminal assaults.

Such a claim arises out of insufficient knowledge of the physiology of
sex, and the pathology of crime. Emasculation would have little
influence in preventing a recurrence of this crime, for the operation
does not render its subjects immediately impotent, nor does it change
their sexual nature any more than it beautifies their character.

The instinct remains, and the power to gratify it remains at least for