Transcript
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Jordan Wandfluh
April 8, 2011
Business Ethics
Professor Potthast
Bayer is a chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in 1863 in the town of
Barmen, Germany. You may know Bayer from their well-known product aspirin, but
Bayer has an unethical past, which seems to be catching up to their future. Bayer along
with many other companies including Agfa, BASF, and Hoechst make up IG Farben;
the union which was the largest financer of the Nazi regime from the years of 1933 to
1944. (Schneider)
Bayer`s non-ethical reputation goes farther back in 1899 when acetylsalicylic
acid was sold as aspirin. Bayer also trademarked heroin as a cough medicine for
children despite the known hazards. (Bayer: A History)
Unethical Case
During World War I Bayer began producing chemical war weapons including
chlorine gas. This gas has horrible effects in trenches. Shortly before World War II
Bayer began collaborating with other companies to help fund Hitler`s campaign. When
Hitler came to office IG Farben produced all of the Nazis explosives including Zyklon
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B; the poisonous cyanide pesticide, which was inhaled into the lungs of 3 million Jews.
Without any of IG Farben`s aid World War II would not have been possible. (Bayer: A
History)
Auschwitz
Auschwitz had three camps: Auschwitz I (concentration camp), Auschwitz II
(extermination camp) and Auschwitz III, which held the labor for the IG Farben plant.
IG Farben would pay 100,000 reschsmarks each year in exchange for a steady supply of
labor. (Bayer: A Brief History)
The labor would be poked and prodded and put under many scientific
experiments to test their products. They were treated worse than lab rats but Bayer
insisted human experimentation was a step of progress in the name of science.
Professor Gerhard Domagk conducted many of the experiments. He later was awarded
the noble prize for medicine after discovering Sulphonamide; a cure for gangrene. His
'patients` were purposefully infected with gangrene and later treated with Bayer
antibiotics. Many people died in the research. (Bayer: A Brief History)
Bayer was also responsible for the twin experimentations, which were done at
the Auschwitz camp. One thousand five hundred sets of twins were tested with drugs.
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One of the twins was used as the controlled variable as the other was used as the
manipulated variable. (Borger)
Not only did IG Farben have unethical morals but also the American`s did not
bomb Bayer`s industrial plants because they received aeroplane fuel from the
rockafeller group. (Schneider)
After World War II: The Trial
IG Farben was taken to court after World War II ended. The judge Howard C.
Peterson proceeded in the case of Nuremberg trials. Peterson was part of the New York
lawfirm: Cravath, Gerdoff, Swain and Wood. This law firm was in favor of IG Farben.
Because of this favor eleven managers were not sentenced. 'Six received prison
sentences from 18 months to 3 years. Ter Meer received a 7-year sentence, while
Ambros and Durrfeld received eight years. All those convicted were released from
prison early` (Schneider). Many of them went back to Bayer, Hoeschst, and BASF and
became top management. (Schneider)
Fritz Ter Meer was the executive of IG Farben and a Nazi party member. Not
only was he a senior scientist of the Auschwitz camp but also he was the one who
constructed the camp. After his release from prison he became chairman of Bayer in
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1956 to 1964. Still to this day Bayer honors the murderer Frtiz Ter Meer by decorating
his grave. (Bayer: A Brief History)
It took 50 years for Bayer to recognize the slave laborers from World War II.
Bayer was pushed by protests to pay compensation for the emotional and physical
damage, which was put upon the slave laborers. (Bayer: A Brief History)
Other Unethical controversies
In the mid 1980`s Bayer was tangled up in one of the worst medical disasters
ever. Cutter Biological, a Bayer unit manufactured Factor VIII which is used to treat
Hemophilia. In 1983 Bayer collected plasma for Factor VIII. This was early in the
AIDS epidemic when there were no tests to check for HIV. Over 10,000 donors gave
plasma. The plasma was tainted. (Cosgrove-Mather)
More than 1,000 Hemophiliacs were infected with the HIV virus. To settle all
of the lawsuits $6 million dollars was paid. Cutter began treating the plasma with heat
and released a new safer product but began selling the old product to developing and
foreign countries. Cutter told them to not be afraid that the product was safe. Cutter
said the reason for still selling their old product, even though the FDA told them not to
sell it, was because the foreign countries were slow to approve of the new product
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and/or because they did not trust the new batch, which was heat-treated. (Cosgrove-
Mather)
According to many documents the real reason for Cutter selling the old product
in foreign and developing countries was because they wanted to preserve the profit
margin from their fixed contracts. Records show Cutter even halted the permission to
sell the new concentration to other countries. A year and a half after the new formula
was sold in the United States Cutter finally applied to sell the heat-treated formula. Four
million dollars worth of old unheated product was sold in the time from when they
starting selling the new product which is 100,000 vials. Seventy-four percent of
Hemophiliacs, which used the unheated Factor VIII, tested positive for HIV. Dr. Harry
Meyer from the Food and Drug Administration helped Bayer cover up the disaster.
(Bogdanich, Walt, and Eric Koli)
Analyze unethical case
Today Bayer is the third largest pharmaceutical company with a slightly hidden
past. (Bayer: A history) An unethical business is a business which behaviors do not
meet the public`s approval socially or professionally. A society as a whole does not
want to support a company who has murdered mass amounts of people and purposefully
given people a product tainted with the HIV virus. As the years go by these incidents
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are covered up more and more. Before the birth of the World Wide Web in the early
1990`s information was not spread as quickly or as efficiently as it is today. Therefore
the information about Bayer has been hidden. I did not know about these incidents
before researching this topic but I am glad I did because I will not be purchasing
products from Bayer because of their history.
Granted the times and locations are not as they are today. Hitler was a good
speaker, not a morally ethical person but people listened to him. Bayer just happened to
be one of them. Germans felt they were helping the greater good making the Aryan
race superior and Bayer felt they were helping the greater good by testing their products
on people but many people say Bayer only thought of their corporate benefit when
supervising the experiments. Till this day Bayer does not comment on the matters and
when they do speak they say they are unaware of the claims about the Auschwitz camp.
(Borger) This is not only about the unethical practices Bayer has inflicted on human
beings but they also lied to cover it all up.
Their actions may have been a form of culture relativism. You could say they
did not know better because this is how Germany was in the early to mid 1900`s but
how far can culture relativism go until inflicting pain on other human being is morally
wrong in the world.
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/ook at the beliefs of Immanuel Kant. Kant believed moral actions are those
consistent with the moral standards that we would want everyone else to follow.
Therefore Bayer is unethical. The people involved with Bayer during the experiments
and HIV infected plasma would not want these unethical practices done to them.
Options
The best option would have been not being involved with Hitler`s regime but the
past cannot be taken back. Bayer should change their name. The name has been tainted
with years of corporate evil. Bayer should also set up a program to help World War II
and HIV victims, which have been harmed from their company. They should accept
and apologize about their companies past mistakes instead of ignoring the situations.
During the HIV incident Bayer should have pulled all the plasma off the market.
Then they should have halted all advertising and launched consumer research. Bayer
should have followed all FDA instructions and gotten a letter which states the FDA is
satisfied with their actions. /astly Bayer should have had a trade in program where the
public could trade in the contaminated plasma with the new heat-treated plasma. These
are only a few ways Bayer, an inhumane corporation, could implement into their
business to turn their industry around.
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Works Cited
"Bayer: a History." GMWatch. Web. 08 Apr. 2011.
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-firms-mobile/11153-bayer-a-history.
Bogdanich, Walt, and Eric Koli. "CBG - KEYCODE BAYER #83." Coordination
Gegen
BAYER-Gefahren / Coalition against BAYER-Dangers. New York Times, 22
May 2003. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. http://www.cbgnetwork.org/378.html.
Borger, Julian. "Drugs Firm Sued by Auschwitz 'guinea Pig' | World News | The
Guardian." /atest News, Comment and Reviews from the Guardian |
Guardian.co.uk. The
Guardian, 19 Feb. 1999. Web. 08 Apr. 2011.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/feb/19/julianborger.
Cosgrove-Mather, Bootie. "Bayer Sold HIV-Risky Meds - CBS News." Breaking News
Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. CBS, 22 May
2003. Web. 08 Apr. 2011.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/22/health/main555154.shtml.
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Schneider, Bernd. "Bayer Predecessor Financed Torture in Concentration
Camps." Mega.nu - Daniel Pouzzner -
[email protected]. Dec. 1996. Web. 08
Apr. 2011.
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