What Is Direct-To-Consumer Advertising Ethical?

The moral issue of this discussion is to discuss if direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs is ethical. There are key patient issues that contribute significantly to the ethical decision-making process. A few that comes to mind are respect for the patients’ rights, their autonomy, and the principal concern for their overall health and well-being. In direct to consumer advertising, drug companies aim ads for prescription drugs directly to the public by advertising on the radio, television and in magazines. This type of advertising often leads to a patient to self-diagnose. It has been stated that the ads have both positive and negative effects on patients and that physicians are expected to read between the lines and deliver the drug facts to their patients. The recent surge in DTC advertising of prescription drugs and trends in medicine has led toward a managed care …show more content…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guarantees that prescription drug data provided by drug companies is honest, sensible, and correctly communicated. DTC advertising can be extremely beneficial to society when it is done correctly. Advertising can inform the public of certain diseases and illnesses, as well as their many possible treatments. After an ad is advertised the patient might start a conversation with their doctor that may not have otherwise happened. DTC advertising may remove a certain stigma surrounding an illness that is not openly discussed.
There have been a number of allegations made towards the negative effects of DTC advertising. DTC advertising can also hurt the patient, doctor relationship because of the increasing patient demands for specific brand name drugs. Others argue that the huge amounts of money being spent on the advertisements drive up the prices of the actual