Organizations engaged in the delivery of services or production of healthcare goods incur special moral obligations. These moral obligations are sharpened in the event of a dire emergency. Yet non-governmental entities, whether technically ‘for profit’ or not, have a more tenuous relationship to the public good than government agencies. What is the relationship between their social obligations and their legitimate business interests? Under extreme conditions such as those that may be associated with a bioterror attack, privately held resources like pharmaceuticals or the time and skills of physicians that are normally strictly controlled by corporate interests could be needed for the public good.
A standard approach to the obligations of business entities is stakeholder theory, which states that corporate moral obligations are determined by the direct interests of shareholders. Yet a strict construal of stakeholder theory sanctions highly profitable products like child pornography that exploit the vulnerable and corrupt social life. Surely the narrow construction is unacceptable. Further, in the case of health care-related services and products, and especially in emergent circumstances, the stakeholders must be construed more broadly as including health care consumers. This broadened view of corporate stakeholders is incompatible with the notion that profit is the sole end of a business, but compatible with the view that profit is, and under ordinary conditions must be, an appropriate goal of business activity.
When extraordinary conditions prevail, then, private interests may be required to serve pressing social needs. Drug manufacturers, for example, should plan for special pricing strategies in the event of a widespread public health threat, a prudent step in any case as they risk losing control over a product if government chooses to assert its prerogatives for the greater good and withdraw patent protection. Similarly, although proprietary interests concerning sensitive product information should be protected, secrecy practices may extend beyond necessity and impinge on the public’s need to know. Industry-wide secrecy standards could eliminate concerns about competitive advantage while preserving the free flow of socially valuable information.
Corporations engaged in the production and distribution of substances that could be turned to terrorist advantage also have an obligation to put adequate security measures in place and to provide educational programs for their employees. Cooperation with local, regional, and, depending on the nature of the business, even national authorities may be required, especially if the company’s facilities could be directly exploited and toxic substances released.
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