Anti-rape condoms - a clever device or a danger to women?

By Lucy Halfhead  on Thursday 6 May 2010

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In South Africa, one in four men have admitted to raping someone, and a 2006 Interpol study found that a woman is raped there every 17 seconds.

And with the World Cup coming up, a South African doctor is hoping to distribute 30,000 anti-rape condoms to fight the problem.

Dr Sonnet Ehlers developed the Rape-aXe condom five years ago, a condom-like sheath a woman can insert like a tampon which is embedded with sharp inward-facing spines. If attacked by a man, the spikes cause immediate pain which the attacker extricated himself and the device can only be removed in hospital.

Woman are begging for access to the device, Ehlers says. But critics say the victim risks further attack if the rapist gets angry.

They argue that the Rape-aXe could cause a man to become more violent when he realises he has been trapped, and the device does not prevent penetration, one of the most traumatic aspects of rape.

Do you think the device could succeed as a deterrent to rapists or are anti-rape condoms a risk to women? Join the debate below...

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Thursday 6 May 2010

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I cant beleieve that it even has to come to this, that women over there would have to use these to stop those kind of men raping them..
Comment by sarah on May 06 12:47

These "condoms" could also be used to hurt and maim innocent men whom women have fallen out with.

Not a good idea.
Comment by Renjohn on May 06 21:54

harsh crimes require harsh deterrents, if a man is willing to rape a woman he deserves everything he gets, a man who truly loves a woman would realise prior to intercourse that something was not right and why would a woman have sex with a man if she was upset with him. This is the best idea I have ever come across. A woman could be prosecuted if she deliberately hurt an innocent man as in her partner.
Comment by Shaz on June 17 21:16

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