J’accuse:  A matter of infanticide

Gordon Nary

The South Africa Government’s intransigent refusal to permit the use of antiretroviral drugs to prevent perinatal HIV transmission presents a moral challenge of which few in the global community have the moral leadership and clout to effectively intervene. One of the few who could is Pope John Paul II.  Although there have been signals that the Vatican might call for a global summit of pharmaceutical manufacturers to discuss the impact of HIV and other epidemic diseases on the world’s poor, there are tens of thousands of the faithful jammed in Rome everyday for the pomp, circumstance, and salvation of the Jubilee Year celebrations which makes it difficult to focus on other issues. However, a few thousand emails requesting that the Vatican intervene to save the lives of thousands of South African children could be effective. Intervention requests should be sent to: Episcopo Xaverio Lozano Barragan, Dilecto ac Venerabili Fratri opersanit@hlthwork.va.

Government officials are personally responsible for the consequences of their actions as well as of their failure to act when they have a responsibility to do so.  South African government officials have a responsibility to protect unborn children from the pernicious virus in their mothers’ bodies by authorizing the use of available and effective antiretroviral drugs. They cannot excuse themselves from personal responsibility for the consequences of their failure to do so – a lesson that was painfully learned by some at Nuremberg who believed that they had no responsibility for their government’s "crimes against humanity." 

The cost of the drugs is not an obstacle. Boehringer Ingelheim has offered to provide nevirapine free for five years. Other African governments have accepted and are receiving drug.  South Africa has refused. The consequence of refusal are the thousands of unnecessarily HIV-infected children whose few months or years of life will be marked with needless pain and suffering. The word for these consequences is infanticide.

Exorcists report that they can never force a malevolent spirit to leave a body until the spirit’s name is revealed. We can never exorcize our personal or societal demons unless we first face them and acknowledge them by name. We will never bring an end to South Africa’s policy of blocking the use of effective antiretrovirals until we call this policy what it is – South Africa’s infanticide policy. Unless we call the demon by its true name, this evil will eventually destroy South Africa’s soul.

The word infanticide has an archetypal power. It carries with it a more primitive sense of justice. The ancient gods ruled with greater moral certitude than our modern deities. Modern justice is too often based on infinite degrees of culpability. But with the ancient gods, the murder of a child by any means demanded swift justice and severe punishment. When a child is murdered, it makes no difference if a child is murdered by deadly gas, by bayonet, or by the intentional withholding of available life-saving drugs. The child is dead.

It is ironic that on November 27, 2000, the government of South Africa became the 23rd state to ratify the Rome Statute in support of the International Criminal Court. In so doing the South African government signaled its agreement that individuals who have committed or abetted such egregious violations of international law as war crimes, genocide, and "crimes against humanity," including rape and torture, must not be allowed to escape prosecution. The defining element of "crimes against humanity" is the intentional devaluation of human life. The devaluation of the lives of the children of South Africa by government officials would appear to meet this definition.

December 25, 2000

Gordon Nary is executive director of Medical Advocates for Social Justice.

Email:  gnary@medadvocates.org 
 

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