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Why Ethics is Impotrant 11/20/2006 8:37:49 AM
This blog deals with why ethics is important in this world One of the seminal questions I am always asked is why is ethics important. There are no simple answers to this question, and I should know because I have been seeking simple answers to this question for many years. The best way to explain to people the importance of ethics in the business world is to give them real world examples of what happens with at this is not present. The following article is an outstanding indication of what happens what ethics is left out in an important area of business. I hope you will find it interesting just as I did.
A Flawed Approach to Drug Testing
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A22
Regarding "Panel Faults Pfizer in '96 Clinical Trial in Nigeria; Unapproved Drug Tested on Children" [front page, May 7]:
As a medical student at Yale University, I observed and participated in biomedical research in three African countries as I investigated the ethics of international biomedical research.
Nothing is "mysterious" about why Nigeria's report on Pfizer Inc.'s clinical trials of Trovan remained confidential. Too often that is the way that clinical trials are run in Africa: with a lack of fully informed consent for the subjects and with a trial design approved by a local ethics committee created to fulfill Western regulations; local researchers and government officials serve as lead investigators in name only.
In the Nigeria case, the only difference from the status quo was that Post reporter Joe Stephens wrote about the trial, necessitating a response from the Nigerian government.
International drug companies, researchers, donors, and national and regional governments have little interest in changing the status quo, so the report was never publicized.
Increasing amounts of drug research are being done in the developing world as regulations in Europe and America have become more stringent. Much of the money for health passes through international researchers, and many Nigerians' salaries are dependent on or supplemented by international biomedical research.
If Nigerian officials demand treatment for human research subjects equal to the consideration placed on European or U.S. lives, other researchers might not come. By publishing the report, these officials not only would alienate an easy source of computers and cars for government officials, as well as salaries and tickets abroad to international conferences for college graduates who would otherwise be unemployed. They also would end "free" health care for the local population.
KOHAR JONES
Middletown, Conn.
THis is why business ethics is important in todays world. It tels us how to ballance the the needsof the real world with keeping the playing fair for wealthy and poor alike. That balance is not always easy, and the solutions not necessarily the ones we like. But, it keeps things fair for the majority of the world.
