Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7256

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Publication type: Journal Article

Dunfee TW.
Do firms with unique competencies for rescuing victims of human catastrophes have special obligations?: Corporate responsibility and the AIDS catastrophe in sub-Saharan Africa
Bus Ethics Q. 2006 Apr; 16:(2):185-210
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17162832&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_DocSum

Abstract:

Firms possessing a unique competency to rescue the victims of a human catastrophe have a minimum moral obligation to devote substantial resources toward best efforts to aid victims. The minimum amount that firms should devote to rescue is the largest sum of their most recent year’s investment in social initiatives, their five-year trend, their industry’s average, or the national average. Financial exigency may justify a lower level of investment. Alternative social investments may be continued if they have an equally compelling rationale. These duties apply to the global pharmaceutical companies in the context of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome*/drug therapy Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome*/economics Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome*/epidemiology Africa South of the Sahara/epidemiology Drug Industry/classification Drug Industry/economics* Drug Industry/ethics* Financial Management/ethics Gift Giving/ethics International Cooperation Moral Obligations* Pharmaceutical Preparations/supply & distribution Rescue Work/ethics* Resource Allocation/economics Resource Allocation/ethics Social Responsibility*