Here’s an interesting idea about the phenomenon of apologising for the sins of past sins, from bioethicist Alice Dreger, of Northwestern University. She is discussing an apology issued by the American Medical Association for discriminating against African-American doctors.

"It’s more like a ‘they-a culpa,’ since the AMA administrators are actually apologizing for bad behavior on the part of their predecessors. ‘They-a culpas’ can be just a wee bit self-serving... When you pull a ‘they-a culpa,’ you don’t actually have to admit to any sin of your own, and you accrue all the social capital of being decent enough to apologize...

[W]hat if, rather then just issuing a ‘they-a culpa,’ the AMA administrators hired some historians to ask a really interesting question: What are we doing right now that our successors are going to feel the need to apologize for? What is the AMA doing now that might look later like racial discrimination looks to us now?"

Good question. Any comments from BioEdge readers? ~ Bioethics Forum, July 18