The Gap Between Law and Morality

"That dog is worth more than their child," my mother said. The dog was a guide dog, killed when a driver mounted the curb in a nearby town. The child belonged to another local family and had some form of mental retardation. Both the blind woman's dog and the retarded boy were known to us. The first because my mother volunteered for various charities, and the second because I went to primary school at the historical moment when there was an attempt to integrate at least some disabled children into mainstream schools. Mum did not approve of this. "An army marches at the pace of its slowest soldier," she said.