Every medic has the potential to support the creation of a just world
When I initially planned what my theme for this issue would be, I reflected on the reasons I wanted to become a doctor in the first place. At the forefront of my mind were my experiences growing up in the UK as the child of a Windrush parent. I witnessed inequality and discrimination first hand from an early age, which was a formative experience. This inspired my longstanding involvement in community organising, advocacy, health equity research, and activism. When I studied the works of Argentine revolutionary doctor Che Guevara, Puerto Rican paediatrician and women’s rights activist Helen Rodríguez Trías, and French-Martinican psychiatrist Frantz Fanon as part of my masters, I realised that there is no such thing as social justice if it does not include health justice. In the words of one of the founding fathers of modern pathology, Rudolf Virchow, “If medicine is to fulfil her great task, then she must enter the political and social life.” Medical school should not only be teaching u
