Deontological Paper
Deontological Paper
Marketing products, services, or even charities to the public has become a very powerful force in our world. Millions of dollars are spent on advertising each year with the goal of increasing revenue for the business or raising awareness of an organization to the public. Pharmaceutical companies bring products to the markets that are intended to help people live better lives. Advertising is a relatively new phenomenon for pharmaceutical companies in the United States. “In 1985, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has the responsibility for safety regulations governing drugs, passed a ruling that allowed direct market to consumers on the condition that a great deal of warning information was provided about side effects and other dangers” DeGeorge, 319). There are ethical questions that surround the role of advertising in the pharmaceutical industry. Most of the nations in the industrial world do not allow them to advertise. We will investigate the issues that surround the ethics of advertising by pharmaceutical companies using a Deontological approach.
John Rawls introduced a “theory of distributive justice that would be universal, would respect all persons, and be rationally acceptable to all” (DeGeorge, 77). In order to see justice more clearly, an objective approach needs to be taken. In order to ensure that there is no bias in our thought process, Rawls suggests we ‘imagine all people from a veil of ignorance” (DeGeorge, 77). We would ignore any cultural or societal differences that divide us, and make decisions based on what is morally right for all of us. We would make our decisions by looking at life through perspectives that were not cluttered with our own preconceptions. We would rationally make decisions by putting ourselves in others shoes to ensure that the result would be fair. The keys to the theory are “each person is to have equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with similar
Marketing products, services, or even charities to the public has become a very powerful force in our world. Millions of dollars are spent on advertising each year with the goal of increasing revenue for the business or raising awareness of an organization to the public. Pharmaceutical companies bring products to the markets that are intended to help people live better lives. Advertising is a relatively new phenomenon for pharmaceutical companies in the United States. “In 1985, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has the responsibility for safety regulations governing drugs, passed a ruling that allowed direct market to consumers on the condition that a great deal of warning information was provided about side effects and other dangers” DeGeorge, 319). There are ethical questions that surround the role of advertising in the pharmaceutical industry. Most of the nations in the industrial world do not allow them to advertise. We will investigate the issues that surround the ethics of advertising by pharmaceutical companies using a Deontological approach.
John Rawls introduced a “theory of distributive justice that would be universal, would respect all persons, and be rationally acceptable to all” (DeGeorge, 77). In order to see justice more clearly, an objective approach needs to be taken. In order to ensure that there is no bias in our thought process, Rawls suggests we ‘imagine all people from a veil of ignorance” (DeGeorge, 77). We would ignore any cultural or societal differences that divide us, and make decisions based on what is morally right for all of us. We would make our decisions by looking at life through perspectives that were not cluttered with our own preconceptions. We would rationally make decisions by putting ourselves in others shoes to ensure that the result would be fair. The keys to the theory are “each person is to have equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with similar
Cited: Business Ethics, 7th ed., by Richard T. DeGeorge. (Prentice Hall, 2010) WHO 2012. Direct to consumer advertising under fire. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/8/09-040809/en/index.html Fintor, Lou. 2012. Oxford University Press. Direct-to-Consumer Marketing: How Has It Fared? Retrieved from: http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/94/5/329.long