Business Law Today, Comprehensive 10th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller

Exercise 22

Business Law Critical Thinking Group Assignment. In the 1990s, Pfizer, Inc., developed a new antibiotic called Trovan (trovafloxacin mesylate). Tests showed that in animals Trovan had life-threatening side effects, including joint disease, abnormal cartilage growth, liver damage, and a degenerative bone condition. In 1996, an epidemic of bacterial meningitis swept across Nigeria. Pfizer sent three U.S. physicians to test Trovan on children who were patients in Nigeria's Infectious Disease Hospital. Pfizer did not obtain the patients' consent, alert them to the risks, or tell them that Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) was providing an effective conventional treatment at the same site. Eleven children died in the experiment, and others were left blind, deaf, paralyzed, or brain damaged. Rabi Abdullahi and other Nigerian children filed a suit in a U.S. federal court against Pfizer, alleging a violation of a customary international law norm prohibiting involuntary medical experimentation on humans.
1. One group should use the principles of ethical reasoning discussed in this chapter to develop three arguments on how Pfizer's conduct was a violation of ethical standards.
2. A second group should take a pro-Pfizer position and argue that the company did not violate any ethical standards (and counter the first group).
3. A third group should come up with proposals for what Pfizer might have done differently to avert the consequences.