Second Opinion | 15 January 2005

Is there, or could there be, anything more sacred than human life? How precious is our brief flowering or interlude between two eternities of oblivion. That is why the wisdom of ages has accorded to motherhood such deep and abiding respect.

Until now, that is. Last week I was examining a patient who was accused of having assaulted his girlfriend. His solicitor thought he might have some kind of illness that caused him to hit women. He, the solicitor, didn’t want to be sued later for having left any stone unturned in the defence of the indefensible.

I asked the defendant about his previous girlfriends. At the age of 14 he had had two: a girl of 15 and a woman of 37. He being a black of Jamaican descent, and the girl of 15 being a Muslim of Pakistani descent, the relationship ended (for discretion is the better part of underage sex) when her brothers threatened to remove his arms with a machete.