Reply #24: Oh My! The Hysterics! [View All]

The problem with a lot of arguments such as this is that they latch onto a kernel of truth while, at the same, time, drastically overstating the conclusions that can be logically drawn from the premises.

I will be the first to admit that the health care field has a problem with money, and that should be obvious. From teaching doctors having significant ties with numerous pharmaceutical companies to managed care operations, it's fairly obvious that there are some troubling flaws in the system. Opponents of "Big Pharma" like to point this out, and they should. There needs to be a financial incentive to provide care - not deny it. There needs to be greater financial transparency with respect to research and affiliation. I agree with you all 100% on this.

But here's where the argument jumps the shark. If the premises are that there are significant flaws in the system and that pharmaceutical companies' primary motivation is mercenary, then the conclusions that they are "evil" or that their medicine is meant to poison us (or is completely ineffective), or that alternative treatments (such as homeopathy) are better courses of treatment do not follow.

I will even grant that pharmaceutical companies do not care about you. They do not care about your grandma or your sister. They do not care about your father or your mother. They care about making money - that's what corporations do. There's nothing inherently evil about making money, though it should be balanced out with ethical stewardship. But pharmaceutical companies aren't going to make any money by selling you pills that kill you. The way you make money in a free market system is by selling a product that people want and that works.

The fact is, medicine has been a boon to our collective human civilization. The advent of science as a way of understanding our world has allowed for the eradication of diseases and the elongation of our life-spans. We're able to take care of things now that, few generations ago, would of been fatal due to advances in medicine.

The bottom line is, I think, a grey one. Even though the pharmaceutical companies can and do engage in unethical behavior, they nonetheless produce an invaluable product that saves lives. Congress should pass legislation forcing greater transparency on the whole system, we should demand universal care, we shouldn't have to put up with companies burying data that ends up costing lives, we shouldn't have to fork over half our paycheck to pay for pills. But, at the end of the day, to ignore the very obvious benefits extended do us as a result of scientific advancement in the field of medicine and to make hysterical claims about pharmaceuticals that are not supported by the premises is...well...hysterical.