The challenge to humanity: Perspective from South Africa

The Challenge to Humanity: Perspective from South Africa D e a r Editor: The human condition--our humanity--links us all as individuals, whether we live and work in the United States or in other cotmtries. And human needs, especially medical needs, unite us all. The challenge to our humanity to alleviate suffering, to improve public health, and to share our capacity to help others is our c o m m o n denominator. For myself, the opporttmity to work with colleagues in South Africa underscored this commonality of the human condition, and an incident in South Africa during my stay illustrated the need for medical professionals to remain true to their calling. It was my privilege to be selected by theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAASD) to participate earlier this year as a consultative team member working with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Parliament of South Africa had established this commission in 1995 to promote "reconciliation" among the races and to expose the truth c o n c e r n i n g apartheid by offering amnesty to those willing to confess their crimes. For 2 weeks in June 1997, I joined team m e m b e r s conducting interviews of health care professionals throughout South Africa to evaluate the impact of apartheid on their professions and on their practices. During that period, I interviewed health care professionals in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. We also attended 2 days of special hearings held by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presided over by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was during those hear-

ings that the president of the South Africa Medical Association recounted the final days of medical student Steve Biko. The president apologized to Biko's wife and brother, w h o attended the hearings, for the negligence of the nledical profession. In riveting testimony, he related h o w Biko, held in prison, had been taunted by his captors, and h o w he died in prison from a subdural brain hematoma caused by a blow to the head with a pipe. Other victims related their accounts of human rights violations in person during the hearings. These were not easy to relate to or to understand. The Commission expects to use the information from these hearings, and that gathered by AAAS and other professional teams w h o interviewed South Africans, to compile a comprehensive report. The report will offer recommendations to the nation and to the world for the prevention of future violations of human rights. Our AAAS consultative team of 10 members included physicians, psychologists, public health authorities, nurses, lawyers, and ethicists. I represented the American Nurses Association. Suffice it to conclude that this record of the era of apartheid in the history of South Africa must speak for itself.

Barbara L. Nichols, R~, MS, FAAN Associate Director of Nursing Wisconsin Area Health Education System University of Wisconsin, Madison Member, Board of Directors of Medic Alert

Int J Trauma Nurs 1998;4:35. Copyright © 1998 by the Emergency Nurses Association 1075-4210/98/$5,00 + 0

APRIL-JUNE 1998

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAUMA NURSING/Letter 35