Traidos Bank and Roche’s Drug Trial in China
Introduction
An organisation or a firm can set standards that may determine what is good or bad while making decisions. These are the ethics of an organisation, knowing what is right and wrong and deliberately choosing to do the right thing. Traidos bank prides itself on being ethical. It is guided by having six principles. The principles are, promoting sustainable development in everything that they do, respecting and obeying the laws of any country that they work in, respecting human right regardless of race and culture, respecting the environment by discouraging negative influence, being accountable for anything that they do and continuously improving (Velasquez, 2011).
Overview and Main Points of the Case
Traidos bank, a British financial institution initially included Roche, a Swiss pharmaceutical company in its investment portfolio. This is because they had qualified for the criteria of selection. They had high ethics that promised to safeguard the health of human beings. They regarded Roche as an ethical company because they were open and clear about most of their operations. Roche has an enforced management that takes care of the environment, and they are also strict about social standards in their marketing (Velasquez, 2011).
Roche was withdrawn from the Traidos bank investment portfolio after receiving an award in the public eye award for the drug Cellcept that prevents rejection of an organ after transplant. Traidos discovered that the source of the transplant organs that Roche was using were questionable. This means that they had double standards on their ethical issues. Whereas they were known to promote social welfare, they failed to clarify the origin of their transplant organs.
The drug test was done on Chinese transplant patients, and the origin of the organs was unknown. China has a strict rule of having drugs tested on patients before they are sold. Therefore CellCept had to do the same. The bank realised that the organs that were being used for transplant came from prisoners whose conditions were unknown (Strochlic, 2015) records that the Falun Gong, a spiritual group in China, claimed that the government tortured them, imprisoned them and harvested their organs without their consent. These organs are later on sold to any patients who need them.
Ethical Situation
Roche in their defence said that its concern was to test the drug on the Chinese patients so that they could get a market from them. They knew that a certain percentage of the organs were from prisoners, but their main aim was to prevent patients from dying due to their bodies rejecting the organs; which according to them is ethical-safeguarding human health (Parboteeah& Cullen, 2013).
Traidos bank having set its moral standards of egalitarianism that every human being is equal and none should be treated better than the other nor should anyone be mistreated on any grounds felt that Roche had undermined their beliefs by using transplant organs from prisoners who were convicted for their different beliefs. The prisoners were either of a strange faith or had different political views. They were not convicted of murder or going against the law. That in its sense is unethical and Roche using their organs made matters worse.
Explanations
Roche pharmaceutical was not honest enough about the origin of the organ transplant that they were using on the Chinese transplant patients. All they cared for was getting a market in China which is large. On the hand, one can argue that they had all the right to test the drugs on the Chinese patients because the drugs would help the patients. But this would have been at the expense of other citizens who were being convicted for having diverse beliefs (Kelly, 2013).
All human beings are equal, and none should be discriminated on any grounds. Honesty and equality are core moral concepts and should adhere. Roche Company should have considered the origin of the transplant organs first before testing Cellcept on the Chinese patients. This way, they would have adhered to their set moral standard of promoting human welfare and health. They would have used authorised organs from willing donors only.
References
Kelly, C. (2013).The Guardian: Ethical standards in public life need constant reinforcement. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/15/ethical-standards-in-public-life-report
Parboteeah, K & Cullen, C. (2013). Business Ethics. Abingdon-on-Thame: Routledge
Strochlic, N. (2015). The Daily Beast. Does China Harvest Organs from Prisoners? Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/29/does-china-harvest-organs-from-living-prisoners.html
Velasquez, G. (2011) Business Ethics: Concepts & Cases. New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR
