EXISTENTIAL LIMITS TO THE RECTIFICATION OF PAST WRONGS

Abstract

Some such cases are powerful, and if their con? clusions are warranted they would require major changes in our societies. Consider the following cases for rectification of past wrongs, some of which should be familiar to the reader: (1) the land claims of various North American Indians, (2) a recent argument for reparations to black Amer? icans, (3) some defenses of affirmative action and preferen? tial hiring programs for women, blacks, and others as compensation for past injustices, (4) damage claims made on behalf of infants deformed by fertility drugs taken by their mothers, (5) general historical entitlement arguments for rec? tification of past injustices.2 What these cases appear to have in common is a claim that some individual or group is owed com? pensation for a wrong committed against an ances? tor in the past. Without focusing on the details of such cases, let us note that each seems to be based