Moral Limbo: How Low Can One Go?

I just read a newspaper report describing an incident where a man sexually assaulted a cognitively disabled woman. The man approached the woman at a public bus stop while she was waiting for a bus to take her to work. It was mid-morning on a sunny weekday. He talked her into walking with him. She told police that she feared he would harm her if she did not go with him. She went with him and he harmed her, anyway. In addition to the psychological damage the man did to this woman, her physical injuries required surgical repairs.

As always happens is cases like this, many people question why a cognitively disabled woman is allowed to be in the community on her own. They argue that the "system" is at fault for allowing this woman to be out in public and open to predators.

Unfortunately, we live in a society filled with various predators. The rapist described above was going to assault someone. Unfortunately, he happened to come across the cognitively disabled woman. If he had not come across her, he would have found another vulnerable person on which to prey. The problem is not with the "system". They problem is a society that enables various types of predators (rapists, dicators, greedy corporations) to prey on our most vulnerable people - the poor, the elderly, the disabled.