The meaning of the MASA apology

The South African medical profession last year offered a collective apology for its role in supporting apartheid in the past--by restricting admissions to medical schools on the basis of race, by segregating health facilities voluntarily, and by tolerating police interference in the treatment of detainees and prisoners. This article questions the validity of a collective apology on behalf of the profession when individual doctors have not disclosed their own involvement in human rights violations. As the newly established Truth and Reconciliation Commission listens to the stories of more and more victims who experienced abuse at the hands of state doctors during the apartheid ear, the medical profession has an ethical obligation to take strong, corrective action to deal with its past This article proposes that the Medical Association of South Africa and the Medical and Dental Council undertake a "parallel process' of healing that involves truth-telling, forgiveness, and reparation. The article argues that the creation of a Truth Commission for Doctors would have a healing effect on the profession, that it would help ensure that human rights violations of the past never happen again, and that the profession assumes greater responsibility for the ethical conduct and training of future doctors.