Apartheid medicine. Health and human rights in South Africa
E. O. Nightingale, K. Hannibal, H. J. Geiger, L. Hartmann, R. Lawrence and J. Spurlock
Committee on Health and Human Rights, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC 20005.
Human rights and health care under apartheid in South Africa were studied.
Human rights violations, such as detention without charge or trial, assault
and torture in police custody, and restriction orders, have had devastating
effects on the health of persons experiencing them. These violations have
occurred in the context of a deliberate policy of discriminatory health
care favoring the white minority over the black majority. South Africa's
medical societies have had mixed responses to the health problems raised by
human rights violations and inequities in the health care system. The
amelioration of health care for all and prevention of human rights
violations depend on ending apartheid and discrimination and greater
government attention to these problems.
