Over the past few days, I have met and heard about numerous people who are deeply distressed by the recent news concerning Lucy Letby, the nurse who has been convicted of killing seven babies. As they describe it, they are partly distressed because of the dreadful nature of the events, and partly because they cannot understand why a nurse would kill babies.
My standard response is that it is right and healthy to be distressed when we hear about such things, but please do not attempt to understand why she did this - and do not be distressed by your failure to understand. There is no reason for such activity which would make sense to a normal person.
And asking why a nurse would do such things is the wrong question. A nurse is a person who devotes their lives to caring for the sick; there is no reason why a nurse would kill babies.
A better question is: why would someone who wants to kill babies choose to work in a neonatal ward, where they would have unsupervised access to sick babies who may die anyway? I suspect the answer to that question is far easier.
We live in a sick world, where the innocent frequently suffer. It seems to me we should be saddened when this happens, but not surprised: we know such things happen. We should also be grateful that they do not happen very often around us, in Western democracies - because in other parts of the world innocent people are killed and maimed far more often. And we should ask what we can do to promote justice and health everywhere in the world. What else could 'love your neighbour' mean?
