ETHICAL DILEMA PAPER
I believe the pharmaceutical business is multibillion dollar business, and when that much money is involved, sometimes the right thing to do gets over looked. I understand that most people are in business to make money, but when ethical dilemmas arise, morally speaking, people should choose to do the right thing.
The ethical dilemma in this video “Ellen 't Hoen—Pool Medical Patents, Save Lives”, is the fact patenting a new drug will help finance its immense cost to be developed, but the same time, that patent can put advanced treatments out of reach for sick people in developing nations, at a deadly cost. A Patent is a government authority or license conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others making, using, or selling an invention. Before watching this video, I never looked at obtaining a patent as a bad thing, but when it is getting in the way of sick people and the medicine they need to live, there is a problem. It all comes down to money, these pharmaceutical companies want to make as much money as they can regardless of who is affected by it. They do not care that people will have to wait ten or twenty years before they can get access to their product, because they are making billions in the process. I believe the only alternative is to reject any patents if it is going to get in the way of saving lives. In simple terms, it is just selfishness, and greed that drives
