Medical experts say they’ll refuse to implement mandatory chemical castration, and one states: “Doctors are not agents of social control. It would be ethically unsound to use medication to reduce risk rather than to treat a medical condition” (Report, 22 May). Yet in psychiatry, social control is routinely exercised, and drugs are often prescribed not to alleviate suffering, but primarily to manage perceived risk. Sex offenders should not be given more ethical consideration and bodily autonomy than psychiatric patients.
Jacqui Dillon
London
• I must take issue with Marilyn Rowley over the use of the semicolon (Letters, 26 May). Reading a sentence aloud with measured pauses will not cut the mustard; an essential prerequisite is a grasp of the difference between a phrase and a main clause. I pontificate as a retired pedagogical pedant who should get out more.
Ian Barge
Ludlow, Shropshire
• Marilyn Rowley’s teacher gave bad advice about the colon. It has nothing to do with a long pause, but indicates that what follows will explain or enlarge upon what has just preceded.
Michael Bulley
Chalon-sur-Saône, France
• The latest campaign being fought in the letters page over the use of semicolons worries me: is this a case of colonic irritation?
Francis Maccabee
Loughborough, Leicestershire
• In your quick crossword (26 May), “Kiwi” was given as the answer to the clue “Fuzzy green foodstuff – that flies!” Oh no it doesn’t!
Euan Dunn
Great Eversden, Cambridgeshire
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