PARLIAMENT The government will consider the effectiveness of chemically castrating paedophiles, says Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rohani Abdul Karim.

“We will study the effectiveness. If it is suitable, what's wrong with implementing it?

“What they do to children is so much worse,” Rohani told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday while wrapping up her ministry's part of the Budget 2017 debate.

Several lawmakers had queried whether the ministry would consider such punishment for paedophiles.

Chemical castration on men works by injecting female hormones into the offenders, which depletes their sex drive.

The debate over child sex offenders became a hot topic after reports broke that a British paedophile Richard Huckle had been preying on Malaysian children.

Huckle had been predating on children in Malaysia for nearly nine years from 2006, and allegedly abused close to 200 children aged between six months and 12 years.

In June, he was sentenced to 22 life sentences in the UK.