Ethics Assignment Reflection

The ethics assignment really opened my eyes to things that I was completely unaware of. The ethical lapse that we chose to research was titled "Guidant Corporation Fails to Recall" and it was a very interesting case. It dealt with heart defibrillators that were being surgically implanted into patients. The problem that inevitably caused this ethical lapse was the fact that there was a rare malfunction in the defibrillators. They were short-circuiting and failing to administer the electrical shock that allowed the heart to return to a normal beat. The problem was reported to the FDA but nothing was ever said about what happened to the original devices.
It was stated that the problem had been fixed, but was later discovered that the company continued to sell the original devices even after gaining knowledge about the malfunction.

I was completely shocked that Guidant didn't feel the need to warrant a recall for the product just because the malfunction was so rare. Their excuse for not sending out the recommendation for removal was that "they believed the risk of operation and infection was greater than the rare chance it would malfunction". A heart defibrillator is a huge lifeline for heart patients, and is essentially what determines life or death for that individual. The fact that they would basically "push aside" the malfunction for their own good is unbelievable. In addition to that, it shows how much they were out for themselves because the only reason they decided to issue a recall at the time that they did was because they learned that the New York Times was in the process of writing a story on the whole situation.

From my research I've learned that, bottom line, its hard to trust anyone or anything. You really don't know a company's true intentions and can never be sure of what would happen in a situation like this one. It seems that they are more concerned with their own company, money, and well being as opposed to the well being of the patients that receive their products. It really is sad that the world is like this, and that extremely serious matters such as this one are kept hidden, especially from the individuals that it can affect most.