Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, recently became one of the most hated CEOs in America. After his company acquired the rights to Daraprim, a drug relied upon by patients with weak immune systems (AIDS), he raised the price over 5,000%, from $13 to $750 a pill. Shkreli’s reasoning for the sudden rise in price was that the extra money received would be put towards research and development, and it was only fair since other pharmaceutical companies have made similar price hikes. As he put it on twitter, he is a capitalist who “plays to win”. After the extreme backlash from the media, Shkreli has promised to lower the price to an “affordable level”.
To analyze Shkreli’s unethical decision making, I will apply the ethical judgment …show more content…
Shkreli’s greediness overtook the first step, ethical awareness, I’ll evaluate the ethical judgment phase. First, being that Shkreli has already valued profits over the public welfare, he must somehow justify the judgment in his decision-making. To do this, the former hedge fund manager utilizes moral disengagement to convince himself and, more importantly, the main stream media that his decision is indeed an ethical one. First, he exploits moral justification to claim that his action is somewhat beneficial. By saying that the extra money resulting in the rise in price will be used for R&D, he is trying to convince the public that it will add some value to society. Advantageous behavior is the next tactic used in Shkreli’s decision making. In an interview, he states that other drug companies have raised prices even more than he has in the past. Essentially saying “other drug companies have done worse, so why is everyone mad at me?” The last aspect of moral disengagement used by Shkreli is the distortion of consequences. In the same interview mentioned above, the CEO claimed that this price change would not deny any patients access to the drug, simply because insurance companies will cover the difference in price. He even has the audacity to claim that this rise in price will actually increase access to the drug. This is certainly not true; doctors from around the world are screaming out that this will hurt patients. It is obvious that Shkreli
To analyze Shkreli’s unethical decision making, I will apply the ethical judgment …show more content…
Shkreli’s greediness overtook the first step, ethical awareness, I’ll evaluate the ethical judgment phase. First, being that Shkreli has already valued profits over the public welfare, he must somehow justify the judgment in his decision-making. To do this, the former hedge fund manager utilizes moral disengagement to convince himself and, more importantly, the main stream media that his decision is indeed an ethical one. First, he exploits moral justification to claim that his action is somewhat beneficial. By saying that the extra money resulting in the rise in price will be used for R&D, he is trying to convince the public that it will add some value to society. Advantageous behavior is the next tactic used in Shkreli’s decision making. In an interview, he states that other drug companies have raised prices even more than he has in the past. Essentially saying “other drug companies have done worse, so why is everyone mad at me?” The last aspect of moral disengagement used by Shkreli is the distortion of consequences. In the same interview mentioned above, the CEO claimed that this price change would not deny any patients access to the drug, simply because insurance companies will cover the difference in price. He even has the audacity to claim that this rise in price will actually increase access to the drug. This is certainly not true; doctors from around the world are screaming out that this will hurt patients. It is obvious that Shkreli