Somerville M A
McGill Centre for Medicine Ethics & Law, Lady Meredith House, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Soc Sci Med. 1989;29(3):385-94. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(89)90287-6.
The title, 'justice across the generations', is reminiscent of expressions such as 'hands across the seas'. The latter is, of course, impossible in reality, but it symbolizes friendship between persons in far-flung lands. Is 'justice across the generations', likewise, no more than a hopeful metaphor, or is there, or at least should there be, some concrete reality to it? If so, what is, or should be, the substance of that reality? This text consists of some free association reflections, principally in the context of health care and mainly in the form of questions, on the concepts proclaimed in the title, namely, justice, across and generations, and what relevance these might have for our present and future societies.