Ethical Issues in Direct Drug Adverting (BE Unit VI Case Study)

BE Unit VI Case Study
Ethical Issues in Direct Drug Adverting
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The chief purpose of any advertisement purpose is to sell a particular good or service and generate profit. As Kalman, (2004) points out, in today’s perspective, it is not difficult for drug companies to convince potential customers through their advertisements that the products are empowering them to think, not as patients, but as users. Promotion of consumer awareness is one instance, where the pharmaceutical industry has had an impact. In addition, the involvement of the patients in these chain of distribution have basically altered their role as being recipients of medical attention to consumers of the latest drugs, a function which has utterly helped a lot in support of the profit increments for these drugs.
When individuals eat well, exercise regularly and are healthy, they in most cases have no need of medical drugs. In particular, direct drug advertising is not concerned on passing to consumers information reading exercises, good and health eating, social involvements, addictions, pollution, climate change or proper drug use (Almasi, Stafford, Kravits, and Mansfield, 2006).
The main purpose of health care is beneficence, or in other words, patient’s welfare. Medical therapies are supposed to promote the well being and health of individuals either through prevention or curing of diseases. This is the basic value of ethics in Medicare (Beauchamp and Walters, 2003). This therefore translates that selling disease is confliction of either the cure or prevention of an ailment, hence directing advertising of drugs to consumers is not beneficence.
As Hollon (2005) notes in direct to consumer advertising, the action of direct advertising of drugs to consumers contravenes many ethical basis in health care. The needs and safety of the patients in this case are jeopardized for the benefit of the drug companies. T...