PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The report was coordinated and edited by Audrey R. Chapman and Leonard
S. Rubenstein and written by by Audrey R. Chapman, Leonard S. Rubenstein,
Vincent Iacopino, H. Jack Geiger, Gregg Bloche, John Hatch, Robert
Lawrence, Barbara Nichols, and Marian Secundy. Affiliations are
listed in Appendix A. Elena Nightingale, leader of the AAAS delegation
to South Africa that wrote the 1989 AAAS report, Apartheid Medicine,
and Barbara Ayotte of Physicians for Human Rights, carefully read
a draft and made many helpful suggestions. Gretchen Richter provided
tireless editorial and technical assistance. Elizabeth Gehman was
responsible for the report's design and layout. The American Nurses
Association generously supported the printing of this report. The
Conanima Foundation and Georgetown-Johns Hopkins Joint Program in
Law and Public Health contributed research assistance.
Patrick Ball of AAAS and Vincent Iacopino of PHR traveled to
South Africa in March 1997 to engage in preliminary research that
helped structure the delegation's work. Research assistance was
provided by Jeremy Wood, Bertram Cooke, Eric Carlson, Aviva Poczter,
and Kharm Singm. Ray Patterson and Jeanne Spurlock of the American
Psychiatric Association, Diane Kuntz of the American Public Health
Association, and Elena Nightingale contributed to the planning
for the report.
Many people in South Africa helped the delegation in countless
ways. We are grateful for the hospitality shown to us by members
of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, especially those who
were responsible for organizing the health sector hearings. The
comprehensive review of human rights violations in the health
sector compiled by the Health and Human Rights Project was invaluable
to our work.
Before, during, and after our visit in June 1997, literally hundreds
of other South Africans—health professionals, government
officials, community leaders, political activists, lawyers, members
of Parliament, students, and academic leaders—patiently answered
our questions, provided important insights into the problems of
human rights in the health sector, and even opened their homes
to us. They are too numerous to acknowledge, but we thank them
all. Finally, while the report is critical of the behavior of
many health professionals who went along with the policy of apartheid,
others acted with extraordinary courage, endured stigma, fear
and sometimes detention, and thus provide the inspiration to believe
that human rights can become a part of the culture of the health
sector. To those people we owe the greatest acknowledgement.
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