Volume 39, Number 17 · October 22, 1992
A Death in Zimbabwe
By David J. Rothman, Sheila M. Rothman
The death of one child from possible medical malpractice at a private hospital in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, might not seem a case of a human rights abuse on a continent where literally millions of people are dying from starvation and AIDS, and continue to suffer from such preventable diseases as cholera, dysentery, polio, and tetanus. But the difficulties encountered in Harare by Charles and Mary Khaminwa as they tried to make the medical profession accountable for the death of their daughter Lavender in August 1990 raise fundamental questions not only about the relation between professional responsibility and a respect for human rights, but also about the increasingly repressive policies of the Mugabe government. What are the consequences when medicine—or for that matter, law, journalism, the academy, or the clergy—fails to uphold basic ethical standards against the self-interest of its members? And if the profession places no restraints on their greed and health care is left unregulated in a free-market economy, who will protect citizens from the arbitrary use of authority, whether in hospitals or in prisons, by doctors or by guards?
Feature, 4476 words
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