ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN BUSINESS 143

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position regarding genetic engineering and
clear ethical guidelines for clinical trials. It has
systems in place to monitor and enforce social
standards in its supply chains, and it favors sup-
pliers -with certified environmental management
iri Chiha':dtrriot-meet Traidos systems. Also, Roche has ambitious targets to
reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions. 3
!'~thi'cal- . off~rs savings accounts and inve.st-
. --ffi.ehtS'~---an'il. it prided itself-on being "the world's leading But several months later the bank learned about
. ,l{i:J-~i~hl i.~:h~rSUsta:inable bank." Traidos declared that its Roche's research programs in China, and after further
. :a~y;tb"di!y;deeiSion-making was guided by six principles: inve~tigations, the bank decided Roche no longer met its
. ""weWill ethical criteria. What the Bank discovered was that in] an-
uary, 2010o
c:e,
Je, Roche received the Public Eye Award that is spon-
' sored by the Berne Declaration and Green peace.
ew ~e}aw-in, every co_untry The award names and shames corporations with
its business unethical social or ecological behaviour. ... Roche
._ . 1-_ r.~spf?Ct hum.an rights-of individuals, and within
11S received the award because of its clinical trials in
dlf(etent societies and cultures; supporting the
China for the dmg CellCept, which prevents the
_aiins of the United Nation's Universal Declara-
:r- rejection of transplanted organs. Since a large part
-..tion.o(Human Rights
es
e?
the
_. ,,.. i-~Spi;:ct errVirou.ment-doing all we can to
of transplanted organs in China originate from
executed prisoners and Roche does not verify the
~eat~ and encmtrage Positive environmental effects origins of the organs in its China-based trials, its
be accoufiiahle-to anyone for anything we do position is questionable. 4
)1- p>ji! i~liD!?wve:.continuously-<~lways -looking fot better
oly -_~\ -~~0-fFw;~: q~_dO~g ~gs_m every area ?four busin~s. 2 . Roche-was testing the drug CellCept on Chinese trans-
plant patients because Chinese law requires that any drug
sold in China must first be tested on Chinese patients. Cell-
Cept is a drug that prevent<; a patient's immune system from
ed rejecting an organ that ht~s been transplanted into the pa-
tient. Transplanted organs are taken from people who have
recently died or been declared "brain dead," or from living
donors who donate an organ or part of an organ when their
~emaining organs can regenerate or can take over the work
of the donated organ (such as a kidney or part of a liver). In
ay inoSt't;OUntties; there are strict _rules governing the removal
w. -:-cib:ri.U\S._fro~ dof\ors. In particular, most countries do not
alloW organs to be taken from donors, living or dead, un-
:r.
less they earlier give their free and informed consent and
JD' - many countries do not allow donors to trade their organs
'); fpr money. Such requirements were problematic in China,
m accOrding to the bank, because most t;ransplant organs came
u. from. prisoner~ and the conditions under which the organ
rl. had -be~n rerrioved were often not known:
b!
Up to 90 percent of all transplanted organs in
China come from e):"ecuted prisoners. Regulation
144 BASIC PRINCIPLES

Western patients owing to ethnic factors or dif-

ferences in constitution, Dr Schwan said. The
focus o(the !J:ials was on (CellCept's] safety and
efficacy in Chinesepatients. 6

In May, 2007, the Chinese government banned the

sale of human organs and required that living donors could
donate their organs only to spouses, blood relatives, or
step and adopted family members. Nevertheless, the organ
trade continued to flourish in China. 7 Not only were the
organs of deceased people (including executed prisoners
whose organs it was still legal to "harvest") sold covertly
to doctors, hospitals,_ or organ "brokers," but living donors
also secretly sold their organs by using easily forged docu-
ments testifying that they were related to the recipient of
their organs.8
A large number of China's prisoners were political
~i[c,<~!l<O?tn~,d;1by#l~ -growing controversy dissidents or those who had been jailed because of their
io~~~:!~~:~~~~:operations that in many religious or political beliefs and not because they had vio-
:li organs taken from lated the law or inflicted harm on others. Since 2006, the

~~~~~[~~~~-"!.c~oin~s~en~t~"~th~athad
while
organs -of its
from prisoners,
le:fo,thecompa:ny to find out what was
its _Chinese patients' organs. How-
c:~~~;dep~o~i:rn:=t~d out, if it did not test its drug
~~ China, whatevel':' the source of
'~lljt,Fqlljd not market its drug there. The
,.,_.,_ 5 .c,..c. good would be served by
~ven th(nJgh many of t~e
FiJl~:t~tpa!~en' t:S. harvested from
\th~\ili~'~s ~f l~ttrr.e Chinese trans-
pfthe benefits
and CritiCs of Roche feared that many of the transplanted or-
'itwp\lld
Falun Gong, a Chinese quasi-Buddhist spiritual group
banned in 1999 and now actively persecuted by the gov-
ernment, had been providing credible evidence that many
of the hundreds of thousands of their members imprisoned
by the Chinese government and who had subsequently
"disappeared," had been killed for their organs which were
then sold or given to transplant candidates. 9 In the sum-
mer of 2010, human rights groups announced that their
investigations had uncovered evidence that more than
9,000 members of Falun Gong had been executed in Chi-
nese prisons for their corneas, lungs, livers, kidneys, and
skin. Imprisoned members of other religious groups in-
cluding Christians, Muslims, and Tibetan Buddhists had
also been imprisoned and executed for their organs. 10
gans of Roche's t~t patients had been harvt:sted from such
plisoner~ of consP,ence against their will.

Questions
1. <"JixPi':i~--~~~w utilitarianism might provide a defense
,for Rg\:)'i .W,q.how a rights-based ethic might instead
- cOD:3eWA ~Qche's drug trials in China. "Which of these
.~9 -~~j.rd:~~lj-~s. is stronger or more reasonable? Ex-
. plaili.~fue re~so~- for your answer.
2.. )~ Jf:ef~lfo!- Roche to continue testing CellCept on
_ 'its"Chl,:\\'esfiraruplant patients?
3. Is Tr;llft9s Bank ethically justified in excluding Roche's
st<i{6~Qm the' funds it offers its customers? Consider
. Y<?u! ~swer in light ef the bank's duty to invest money
~J;1Y.;m<!),!!, jight of its own conclusion that Roche was
among "the best performing 50% of pharmaceutical
comp:ihleS in Europe," was "transparent about sustain-
ability issues," had "a comprehensive position regarding
.'.'.I'
.,.
'
;
'1.\
ET: liCAL PRINCIPLES IN BUSINESS 145 _ _
=.:__:_c.::_

4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Minutes of the 92nd Annual General Meeting of the Share-
- hoN~t_t; 9:f~~~~e_B.<;~lding Ltd, Basel, held at 10.30 A.M. on
March 2, 2010 at the Convention Centre, Basel Trade Fair
Complex, Basel; accessed January 12, 2010 at www.l"ocbe.com/
amzual_general_m"eeting_2010_en.pdf
7. Liu Zhen and Emma Graham-Harrison, "Organ T!"afficking
Trial Exposes Grisly Trade/' Reuters, May 19, 2010.
8. Shan Juan, "Organ Trafficking Ring to Go on Trial," China
Daily, March 17, 2010; accessed January 15, 2011 at http://
.'JJl7.1YU.>,chinat!aily .com.cnlchina/20 I 0-0 3117/cmtent_9 599832.htm
9. David Matas and David Kilgour, Bloody Harvest: Organ
Haroesting ofFalun Gong Practitioners in China, (\Voodstock,
ON, Canada: Seraphim Editions, 2009).
10. Chinese Accused ofVastTrade in Organs," The Washington
Times, April27, 2010.

CASES
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of California, or Unocal, was founded stood to net an estimated $200-$400 million per year for
oil fields around Los Angeles and other the life of the project. A portion of these revenues would be
' By .f99b, Unocal had operations in paid to the companies that partnered with Burma.
l'!~;X~'~;~~:s~ indu.ding extraction, refin~ MOGE, the government-owned company, signed
nbiition, :Ii and even retail (the company a contract with Total agreeing to "assist by providing
With most oil security protection and rights of way and easements as may
.the company be requested.by" the companies with which it partnered. 4
Outside the Vvl:tile its partner companies would actually construct the
~""A"'"'"' to govern- project"" Burma WO\lld provide se.curity through its army,_
aspects of oil which would also ensure that land was cleared and rights of
. Beach, CEO way secured for the passage of the pipeline through Burma .
.. likes about The Burmese project appealed to Unocal. Burma was
.tO-take the attractive for several reasons. First, labor was cheap and
relatively educated. Second, Burma was rich in natural gas
resources, and its'inany other untapped resources presented
major opportunities. Third, Burma was an entry po.int into
_.other pot~tiall)' l.Ucrative international markets. Burma not
.::::<nily:.tjff~r~"d -a.pate~tially large market itself, it also occu-
. pfed a~t:#t,7~c lOCation that could serve as a link to markets
in China)'Th.dh, and other countries in Southeast Asia. Fi-
_nally, the .~urmese government maintained a stable political
climate. With the military to maintain Jaw and order, the
political environment was extremely dependable.
~~efor~ ~~~tting itself to the project, Unocal evalu-
~t~~ 'its risk.positioD. by conducting research on the social-
politiCal en"Virolunent of the country. Burma is a Southeast
Asian country with a population of 42 million and land
masS about the size ofTexa3. Burma is bounded by.India
to the northwest, China to the north and northeast, Laos