Viagra/Sexual Offenders:Is the Government Going Off "Half-Cocked"?

Is it possible that our government, in response to the current
brouhaha about Viagra prescriptions to former sexual offenders, is initially behaving
like our government did in the Terri Schiavo case.. first acting out of their
"heart" and not from using their "brains"? Because what is really needed is
a little biology instead of gross politics.

It is very important, in order to
understand whether the ethical principles of beneficience and justice are
being denied some or all of these former offenders, to know what is understood as
to the pathogenesis of their illegal behavior and whether the behavior was
related to either organic or psychologic erectile dysfunction. Specifically,
whether these men have had problems with the ability to attain or maintain an
erection which then led to impaired socially acceptable sexual activity. I have
read that most of the molestation of children is manifiested by fondling
rather than penetration. Could this be an important fact? In cases of rape of
adults, do we know that normal penetration has occurred in most cases? What
symptoms did the former sex offenders present to their physicians and what were the
physical findings that led to a prescription being written for Viagra? Maybe correcting the erectile problem will mitigate the illegal behavioral problem? I really don't know. But someone may or will know.

Therefore, it may be wrong (and for the affected patients non-beneficent and unjust) to just assume that because Viagra is used in sexual activities, it will stimulate the wrong sexual behavior and therefore some patients should not be able to receive it--at government expense or even otherwise. My suggestion is that these and other questions should be answered by those who know and our government shouldn't be going
off "half-cocked"...so to speak. ..Maurice.

Addendum 5-28-2005: Just in case you didn’t think about it, as a consequence of the findings that sex-offenders in many states were receiving Viagra through Medicaid, Congress is now preparing to terminate Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction medication. This would deny effective medication for the poor to engage in a healthy family behavior thus go against the declared administration goal to encourage family values. And curiously, in addition, this act would likely prevent potential pregnancies and therefore go against the declared administration goal to promote life. Oh well, there is no consistency to politics. ..Maurice.