The RotaShield Fix
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3 word format
document in English
medical studies
presentation
published 06/06/2008
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level : Advanced
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SummaryThe field of biomedicine is wrought with ethical questions and dilemmas. As researchers and medical professions work to improve our quality of health, they must constantly evaluate the appropriateness of their efforts, especially when weighted against the experimental and the adverse unknown. Wyeth Ayerst, a prominent pharmaceutical company, encountered such a difficult ethical situation when they ventured to develop a vaccine to defeat rotavirus. Although their intentions stemmed from moral grounds, the progression of their work to put the vaccine into use forced them into an ethical dilemma. Wyeth Ayerst’s case exemplifies how ethical considerations are necessary in the medicine and business realms, regardless of the nature of the situation at hand.
Table of Contents
- Rotavirus is not the most lethal or life-threatening virus 'around,' yet its presence permeates all communities and creates a significant burden on those affected.
- The laboratories of Wyeth Ayerst evaluated the rotavirus facts and saw the illness as a promising challenge they wished to undertake
- With the RotaShield vaccine in high usage though, VAERS was discovering a much larger rate of intussusceptions cases, in particular severe or life-threatening cases.
- RotaShield may easily be in accordance with utilitarian ethics, yet under a system of Kantian ethics, RotaShield is not as clearly justified.
- For underdeveloped areas though, where medical practices are lacking and rotavirus is viewed as a deadly illness, the application of Kantian ethics progresses differently.
- The RotaShield vaccine that Wyeth Ayerst developed may be a medical boon to many, yet along with its benefits come a considerable amount of ethical concerns.
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