Abstract
Humans have done – and continue to do – significant harm and wrongs to other humans by their actions and omissions. Often this is intentional and sometimes it is unintentional.
To a much greater extent, humans have done – and continue to do – good. They take care of other humans, other species and the environment. They engage in the most heroic and kind actions imaginable to help, support and comfort others.
In recent weeks, many of the wrongs from the near and more distant past have absorbed me. Hence this Editorial.
You may recall that, in the last Editorial, 1 there was reflection on suffering caused by those who initiated and continued the United States Public Health Service Syphilis Study (USPHSSS) at Tuskegee, even when antibiotic treatment became available. The annual conference at the National Centre for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University, 2 brought together scholars who shared their insights regarding this and some of the many other injustices inflicted on Black people in the southern states. The conference marked the 400th anniversary of the first slaves being transported to America in 1619 and included discussion of ‘racial terror lynchings’ and the suffering of African Americans before, during and after segregation. A visit to the Montgomery Legacy Museum and to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice 3 reminds that there is significant work to do to address current mass incarceration injustices, including the incarceration of children. 4
A visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York last month immersed me in another kind of suffering. The suffering arising from the events of one day and caused by the actions of a group of terrorists. Almost 3000 people died – civilians and rescue workers – and the memorial and the museum enable visitors to witness the events and the aftermath. 5 There is much there to evoke empathy and sadness and also surprise. Surprise, that even in the most desperate situation when there is awareness that death is inevitable, individuals will be true to their character. This was illustrated most acutely in a side section of the museum which focused on people who jumped from the twin towers (estimated to be between 50 and 200 people). One witness detailed the last moments of one woman who, just before she jumped, held down her skirt. The witness interpreted her action as maintaining her modesty in the most distressing of circumstances. The narrative relating to the heroic actions of fire fighters and other rescue workers, who sacrificed their lives, highlights the lengths that humans will go to to help others.
There has been recent attention to historical research relating to how universities in the United Kingdom and United States benefitted from slavery. 6,7 There has been discussion also of the potential for reconciliation and hope in relation to the ‘clergy abuse crisis’. 8 Readers will be aware of other examples of wrongdoing, and attempts to put things right, from their home countries.
Some humans, then, in most countries have atrocities to answer for, suffering to make up for and reflection on the role of reparations to engage in. At the most extreme end of the wronging continuum, humans kill, torture and enslave other humans. At the other end they lie, deceive and break promises. Regardless of which end of the continuum the wrong is located, all have the potential to cause suffering. Suffering that is physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual.
So can we right the wrongs of the past?
It is impossible to undo the suffering of people who endured injustice in the past through slavery, segregation, exploitation and other forms of harm and humiliation.
It is, however, possible to do better now, and in the future, and many people and nations are on the way to doing this. Five strategies seem worth drawing attention to but I am sure readers will have many other examples:
Overall, then, there is much to reflect on regarding the wrongs of the past and whether it is possible to right these wrongs. It is impossible to undo past suffering, however, we can do much in our education and care practices to draw attention to human fallibility and tendencies to favour humans who are similar to ourselves.
Some years ago, I came across a quotation that, in relation to this discussion, is particularly helpful: Each of us is like all of us, like most of us, like some of us, like none of us. (source unknown)