pharmaceutical morality
What does it mean for something to be morally wrong? In order to answer this question I will start off with providing some essential background on the subject. Socrates once said that "Moral philosophy is hard thought about right action" Ethics is the section within philosophy, which evaluates what is morally right and wrong, and sets certain standards and norms of how you ought to behave in different situations. These however can vary from different societies with different religions and beliefs, and change from time to time. What is considered morally wrong one place might be fully accepted somewhere else, for example the use of alcohol. Also what was considered a norm hundreds of years ago, such as burning of witches, is totally unacceptable today. ("We need Values and Morals," 2000)I believe we do have certain moral values that are clear for everyone; such as you should not kill or steal. However, distinguishing between what is morally right and wrong can often be subjective. Religions claim to be the source of our values and morals. I disagree with this, because the values are proven to be older than the religions, by the fact that many religions are based on the same ideas, and there is no
The Pretoria High Court has ordered the government to provide the nevirapine drug to all pregnant women, which studies has shown to reduce the mother-to-child transmission by up to 50%, and the German firm which manufacturers this drug has offered to provide it free of charge for five years. We have to face the reality that the pharmaceutical industry is motivated by profits not humanitarianism, but are there really no other solution to the problem? If all the world nations would give up some of their grief and self-interest, and divert a small percentage of wealth toward some form of international drug insurance plan, (perhaps administered by the UN) that could purchase and distribute the necessary medicines free of charge to those in greatest need, it would at the end of the day yield "the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Robert Naiman , who is a Senior Policy Analyst in the US has stated that: "In medicine as in law-enforcement, failure to act can be a crime, morally and sometimes legally. a using generics, and 56 billion Rand using patented drug. I believe that the tragedy of HIV and Aids questions some difficult moral issues. I will discuss my issue from an utilitarian point of view, which is looking at the outcome of the action, which yields the greatest happiness for society. (1967) "ETHICS; an introduction to moral philosophy. " How can the pharmaceutical industry justify that effective treatments are being withheld for the simple reason that people cannot afford to pay the overcharged prices? (Weissman, 2001) The public is told that this is an intractable problem, which cannot be solved due to the fact that there are too many other issues in Africa, such as the lack of health care and educational infrastructure in these countries. "The new assistance would dramatically increase access to prevention, treatment, care, and support programmes", says the World Bank in a statement. 1 million are living with HIV or Aids, and more than 9000 are infected every day. Our values are often contradictory, and not always logically connected with how we actually behave.
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