To paraphrase Planck, ethics advances one funeral at a time. There are many historical activities which were condoned at the time but now seem abhorrent to us.

To paraphrase Planck, ethics advances one funeral at a time. There are many historical activities which were condoned at the time but now seem abhorrent to us. Participants (or perpetrators, depending on how judgemental you are feeling) in those unethical activities probably never fully recanted, and the best thing they did was to somehow manage not to pass the desire on to the next generation.