Legal Term: CASTRATION

Definition: crim. law. The act of gelding. When this act is maliciously performed upon a man, it is a mayhem, and punishable as such, although the sufferer consented to it. 2. By the ancient law of England this crime was punished by retaliation, membrum pro membro. 3 Inst. 118. It is punished in the United States generally by fine and imprisonment. The civil law punished it with death. Dig. 48, 8, 4, 2. For the French law, vide Code Penal, art. 316. 3. The consequences ofcastration, when complete, are impotence and sterility. 1 Beck"s Med. Jur. 72.

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