The Council of Europe is asking the Czech Republic to stop the surgical castration of convicted sex offenders. The request was made after members of the council's anti-torture committee visited hospitals and jails in the country.

In its report, the committee wrote, "Surgical castration is a mutilating, irreversible intervention and cannot be considered as a medical necessity in the context of the treatment of sex offenders... the intervention removes a person's ability to procreate and has serious physical and mental consequences."

It doubted free consent was granted by convicted sex offenders for the medical procedure to be performed on them. The reports said there where times when the prisoners only gave in to the procedure to avoid being confined indefinitely.

The Czech Republic is the only European country that performs surgical castration to punish sex criminals, while the United Kingdom, France and Poland are experimenting on chemical castration. Since 2000, about 300 convicted Czech sex offenders have undergone the medical procedure, although the committee doubted the accuracy of the numbers provided by Prague.

In a response to the Council of Europe report, officials of the Czech Republic denied the sex offenders were forced to undergo the procedure. They stressed the Czech institution in charge of surgical castrations has a worldwide reputation for its achievements in protective treatment.

The officials said, "The Czech Republic has a comprehensive system of care for patients with sexual deviation, which includes, in particular, building the patient's insight into his own problems and ensuring safe forms of further sexual life. The treatment by suppression of libido is not a dominant feature of this therapy."