Castration

This article is about the practice as applied to humans. For livestock and pets, see Neutering.
Not to be confused with Penis removal or Emasculation.

Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes. Some forms of castration cause sterilization (permanently preventing the castrated person or animal from reproducing); it also greatly reduces the production of hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen. Surgical castration in animals is often called neutering.

Castration has been used by humans for various types of slavery, such as in the eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire, as well as a terror tactic in warfare. It was incorporated into Chinese law during the Zhou dynasty. In the USA, Thomas Jefferson wrote a bill in Virginia reducing the punishment for rape, polygamy, or sodomy from death to castration. A slave attempting to rape a White woman in Virginia could be castrated.

Castration of animals is intended to favor a desired development of the animal or of its habits, as an anaphrodisiac or to prevent overpopulation. The parallel of castration for female animals is spaying. Castration may also refer medically to oophorectomy in female humans and animals.

The term castration may also be sometimes used to refer to emasculation where both the testicles and the penis are removed together. In some cultures, and in some translations, no distinction is made between the two.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.