IDENTITY

South African doctor Sonnet Ehlers recently unveiled Rape-aXe, a female condom with hard plastic barbs or teeth in it that is designed to prevent, stop, and tag attacking rapists. The Condom was invented due to an event that always stuck in Dr. Ehlers’s mind when a woman stated that she wished she had teeth down there in order to stop her rape. I find this device somewhat interesting and fascinating how well it has been designed. Ehlers stated that she consulted engineers, gynecologists, and psychologists to make the device as effective and safe as possible. The device is made to latch into the skin of the penis, causing a lot of pain while trying to minimize blood, to prevent blood from contaminating the victim. Also the device can only be removed surgically. I like the general concept of the device, but I do have a few concerns. The major one is I wonder how easy it is to remove the device from the woman. If the device is easy to remove, then the effectiveness is quickly diminished. Also the device can quickly cause a rape to become a murder after the guy has been “tagged” by the device. This possibility can also be escalated if it is a group rape. The biggest thing I believe the Rape-aXe has going for it is the psychological factor, which should cause a drop off in the number of rapes after the first few reported cases become known. If the device works well, then the potential of this becoming a standard device in preventing rape in countries around the world and being a usual tool becoming extremely high. Tomas