The mind of man is not an organ that can be identified physiologically. It cannot be touched or operated on, by doctors or surgeons. It is an intangible bundle of resolutions and hesitations; of wishes and wants. It has as warp and woof the wishes that man entertains with outward objects and sensations. It easily rushes out after external pleasures and assumes shapes of things it seeks. In humankind, man can be basically classified into three prominent groups, the intellectuals, the educated, spiritual, the clergy, the learned, and the eminent category of medical men.

If one were to isolate the medical men out of the above mentioned three categories, they stand out as the crème of the elite in our society who can be called as ' God' in human form because unlike a butcher uses his knife to kill, surgeons use the knife in an entirely different manner to cut and give life to fellow humans who are ailing and suffering from various physical complications.

Medical men are governed by a strict code of professional ethics and the ordinary man and woman goes for consultations into their private rooms with implicit faith in these so called curators, who in a noble profession, with the premise that they are kind, courteous and saintly. But what if a medical man hides behind a professional uniform of a white coat and tries to misbehave and breaks that trust what the public places on them? Then not only he becomes a liability to his dignified profession but also by breaking the sacred code of ethics, he simply allows the whole profession to stink to high heaven and disrepute.

The above mentioned thoughts were inspired within me when I had the first hand experience of listening to a harrowing story of a respectable lady in Colombo recently when she was subjected to professional misconduct and abuse by a VOG in a reputable women's clinic in Colombo.

The woman, Mrs. X, had made an appointment with the clinic to have a normal smear test done as a routine check on her health. At the hospital reception, her husband was asked to relax in a waiting room whilst Mrs. X was taken in for the medical examination by the so-called the top man in the clinic.

According to Mrs. X, she was taken aback at this VOG's very first remark of requesting her to remove all her clothes. It was too much for comprehension for her to remove all her clothes for a simple smear test! However, as there was a female nurse at the end of the bed and Mrs. X had assumed that it was, may be, the normal practice, as she had never experienced it before.

Having removed the clothes, she was allowed to lie on the bed while the examination started. Soon Mrs. X had realised that there was something radically going wrong when both his hands converted into a Yellow Pages activity ('let the fingers do the talking!")

Horrified and disgusted and with unease Mrs. X said she had to remove his hand several times but he kept on insisting that she had to relax while the examination was in progress as otherwise it would be uncomfortable for her and even might hurt. In a true sense, Mrs. X was frothing mad with anger but could not do anything in her plight and submissive posture. It was unfortunate, she said, that the nurse was standing against the wall helplessly perhaps knowing what her boss was up to but kept mum for the fear of losing her job if she were to make a noise about it!

After several minutes in that agonising submissive position Mrs X had jumped out of the couch, dressed up and run to her husband and screaming and crying in the car all the way home. Flabbergasted poor husband was trying to think whether the VOG had informed his wife that she was suffering from cancer of some sort!

Subsequently, this professional misconduct of the VOG has been reported to the Matron of the clinic who had confessed that several complaints about this medical man had been received and the Matron did make it a point whenever she was on duty that no young woman went to his examination cubicle. Unfortunately she was not on duty when Mrs. X visited the clinic..

This goes to show how some of the so called male gynaecologists practising in Sri Lankan clinics are turning themselves into sex perverts in the presence of respectable and timid women, by turning a blind eye to their professional code of ethics through their sick minds.

The most unfortunate thing about this particular case has been that the medical man in question appeared to be the big wig of the clinic and his subordinates had no choice but to keep mum of the beastly activities of this sex maniac! Mrs. X's advice to fellow females is not to trust any male gynaecologist in Colombo, but 'for your own safety and self respect always seek the services of a female VOG' .