Health care corporations: Moral obligations and research bioethics

Abstract

Many companies rely on research to ensure market relevance and to optimise their profit making potential. The paper examines the legal-moral dimensions that constitute corporations and considers how these relate with bioethics, notably the 'four principles approach' autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. There appears to be an inherent tension between the profit making prerogatives of health care corporations and the ethical principles of medical research. A resolution to the moral tensions may be achieved by way of moral reasoning (Richardson, 2003). The paper forwards arguments based on Richardson's reconciliation of divergent moral principles via his pragmatist notion of practical intelligence that seeks to inform us that we must remain open to revising our conception of what is good and what is right.