Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7434

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Lee Chang P.
Who's in the business of saving lives?
J Med Philos 2006 Oct; 31:(5):465-82
http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(uctokvvggmcfdl555cnfir55)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,3,6;journal,2,54;linkingpublicationresults,1:104379,1

Abstract:

There are individuals, including children, dying needlessly in poverty-stricken third world countries. Many of these deaths could be prevented if pharmaceutical companies provided the drugs needed to save their lives. Some believe that because pharmaceutical companies have the power to save lives, and because they can do so with little effort, they have a special obligation. I argue that there is no distinction, with respect to obligations and responsibilities, between pharmaceutical companies and other types of companies. As a result, to hold pharmaceutical companies especially responsible for saving lives in third world countries is unjustified.

Keywords:
drugs, impoverished, obligation, pharmaceutical, responsibility MeSH Terms: Developing Countries* Drug Industry/ethics* Ethical Theory* Ethics, Business* Humans Moral Obligations Mortality Poverty/ethics Social Responsibility*