Employer's dilemma

Our housemaid has a sickly, yellowish face. She feels that she is over weight, so she skips meals to get slim. Unfortunately she overdid her diet and one fine day suffered stomach convulsions.

Our family doctor, who treated her, told my wife that the maid is also suffering from a heart disease. She advised us not to tell the patient that besides the upset stomach, she is also suffering from a heart disease.

If she were a man, she would not need to worry because there are many men who live a normal life, in spite of an abnormal heart. However, since the servant is a girl, it could be very dangerous if she were to conceive and bear a child. It could be a matter of life and death.

As the maid's employer, I face a dilemma. On the one hand, to tell the maid that she has an abnormal heart will cause her distress or she might fall into deep depression, because a village girl abhors a spinster's life; in short it will make her life miserable. On the other hand, if we do not tell her, she might risk her life out of sheer ignorance, and I cannot escape my feelings of guilt.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta