Day 035 - 12 Oct 94 - Page 43


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  Can we just be clear that we are talking about the
     3        same thing?  Is it marriage or having children?
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  Both.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  They have both been mentioned by learned
     8        authors as factors.
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not know if you carry any figures in your
    11        head for the average age of marriage for American women,
    12        do you?
    13        A.  I am afraid I do not.
    14
    15   Q.   Do you suspect that it is getting later all the time?
    16        A.  I am not sure what you mean by "all the time".
    17
    18   Q.   There is a sort of linear graph that could be drawn over
    19        the years for the average age of Americans women's
    20        marriage?
    21        A.  I would say that that is true currently (and this is
    22        not an area I have a great deal of knowledge of).  It
    23        probably is true in recent years.  I rather -- I do not
    24        know when that began, probably comparatively recently.
    25
    26   Q.   Do you also think it is true in America, or might be true
    27        in America, that on the whole women are having fewer
    28        children than they used to?
    29        A.  On the whole, that probably is true.
    30
    31   Q.   Certain it is, I suppose, Dr. Barnard, that American women
    32        on average have fewer children than people in, let us say,
    33        South America or China -- I do not know about China.
    34        A.  I am actually not -----
    35
    36   Q.   Let us leave China out it?
    37        A.  I think we are getting beyond the area of my expertise
    38        when we talk about the ......
    39
    40   Q.   I wondered about that, you see, because if you are going
    41        to propose a diet as a causal factor in incidence of
    42        breast cancer, do you not have to consider all the other
    43        variables before you can reach a sensible conclusion?
    44        A.  In my reading of the literature review articles, such
    45        as the one you have presented me, that factor is not
    46        described as being one in which very much information is
    47        available or very much credence given.
    48
    49   Q.   We will read on then, shall we?  I have got to the
    50        section:  Risk factors with breast cancer, and I will read 
    51        it again because it is so long ago now: "As early as 1700 
    52        Ramazzini", whom we may assume was an Italian, I suppose, 
    53         "observed that child-bearing reduces the risk breast
    54        cancer.  In an international study, MacMahon and others
    55        found that the dominant protective factor was an earlier
    56        age at first birth, rather than the number of children:  a
    57        first birth after the age of 35 years increased the risk
    58        about threefold compared with a first birth before the age
    59        of 20."
    60

Prev Next Index