Can we do evil without being evil? Many were shocked at how ordinary nurse and serial killer Lucy Letby seemed — but others say this is the very nature of human wickedness.
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The nurse who became UK's worst child killer
Can we do evil without being evil? Many were shocked at how ordinary nurse and serial killer Lucy Letby seemed - but others say this is the very nature of human wickedness.
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What's happening?
Yesterday Lucy Letby learned that she would spend the rest of her life in prison. Letby was a nurse at a hospital in ChesterA city in northwest England. when she murdered seven newborn babies. The police fear she may have harmed up to 30 more.
The parents of one of the babies she killed said Letby was "evil disguised as a caring nurse". Some parents said she seemed to be strangely happy as their babies became very ill.
The trial did not answer a big question: why did this ordinaryNormal or average. woman, who had an ordinary childhood and an ordinary life, do such terrible things?
Some are asking: what does evil really look like? Some suggest that she is an example of what thinker Hannah ArendtA Jewish German political philosopher who escaped a concentration camp and fled to America. She wrote extensively about Nazism. called "the banalitySomething that is boring or unexciting. of evil".
Find out more
Arendt was talking about Adolf EichmannThe senior Nazi in charge of organising the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during World War Two. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged in 1961., one of the most important organisers of the HolocaustThe murder of six million Jewish people in Europe by Nazi Germany. Members of other minority groups were also killed. . Arendt argued that Eichmann seemed ordinary, even boring - certainly far from evil. But it was his dullness that allowed him to do such evil things. It meant he just did whatever he was told.
Letby was the same: someone who seemed entirely normal, and so would never have been suspected of killing people.
But others say evil is not just in what we do: it is in who we are. American thinker Judith ShklarA 20th Century American philosopher and political theorist. suggested that the most important moral is the rejection of cruelty. But Letby's crimes were extremely cruel.
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Can we do evil without being evil?
Yes! Letby does not seem evil. She does not say hateful things. It seems like she was an ordinary person who did terrible things, rather than being an evil person.
No! Letby's crimes were very cruel. She has never said sorry or shown that she is sorry. Nobody could do such an evil thing without being evil.
Keywords
Chester - A city in northwest England.
Ordinary - Normal or average.
Hannah Arendt - A Jewish German political philosopher who escaped a concentration camp and fled to America. She wrote extensively about Nazism.
Banality - Something that is boring or unexciting.
Adolf Eichmann - The senior Nazi in charge of organising the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during World War Two. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged in 1961.
Holocaust - The murder of six million Jewish people in Europe by Nazi Germany. Members of other minority groups were also killed.
Judith Shklar - A 20th Century American philosopher and political theorist.
The nurse who became UK’s worst child killer
Sentenced: Lucy Letby is only the fourth woman in the UK to receive a whole-life jail term. Glossary
Chester - A city in northwest England.
Ordinary - Normal or average.
Hannah Arendt - A Jewish German political philosopher who escaped a concentration camp and fled to America. She wrote extensively about Nazism.
Banality - Something that is boring or unexciting.
Adolf Eichmann - The senior Nazi in charge of organising the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during World War Two. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged in 1961.
Holocaust - The murder of six million Jewish people in Europe by Nazi Germany. Members of other minority groups were also killed.
Judith Shklar - A 20th Century American philosopher and political theorist.