Curing the British National Health Service with Two Words?

The recent press storm detailing ethical failures within the NHS highlights the oversimplification (to two words) and under analysis (in two words) of the ethics challenge. This blog focuses on those two words: “moral purpose”. The key question is how will this “moral purpose” result in more ethical decision-making throughout the NHS but within the context of the NHS’ reality? Calling for a moral purpose is useful if it is shorthand for calling for on-going comprehensive ethics oversight and not a one-shot tagline. For the moment, the prescription is for these two words (with a code of ethics and dismissal of leaders as the over the counter add-ons). Read more →

Lance Armstrong Part II: “Winning at All Costs”: Organizational Doping or Strategically Integrated Unethical Behavior

Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey this week reinforced his driving objective of “win at all costs”. However, the question that Oprah never directly asked during her provocative discussion was whether he ever thought he had really won when accepting the trophies after so intentionally and consistently cheating. There was not a single Tour de France race that he actually won clean. Read more →

The Ethics of Security: With Respect and Gratitude to the Victims of January 1, 2013

As initially posted on the Heartfile blog. Heartfile is a non-profit NGO think tank with a focus on policy analysis and innovative solutions for improving health systems in Pakistan.

It is a great privilege to contribute to Heartfile’s blog, particularly on a day when the only possible first words must honour the Pakistani aid workers brutally shot and killed only a few hours ago. They were leaving a community center with a primary school and medical clinic that press reports note took part in the polio vaccination campaign. Read more →

An Organizational Ethics Disaster

(As first published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on November 16, 2012)

The New England Compounding Center meningitis case spotlights the tragic consequences of failed organizational ethics.

The news is rife with stories of natural disasters (the tsunami, Haiti, Hurricane Sandy) and human tragedy (cancer, poverty). These problems are beyond our control despite best practices and best efforts. The news is also rife with silence. Silent rapes in India, decades of hidden abuse by knighted BBC star Jimmy Savile, and the surreptitious collection of user data by the ubiquitous Angry Birds app all demonstrate this. But the 32 deaths from meningitis that were recently traced to the New England Compounding Center (NECC, a pharmacy producing contaminated vaccines) reflect neither disaster beyond human control nor silence. This tragedy reflects blatant disregard for best practices—ones well within the NECC’s control—and a shocking, on-going failure to react to clear danger. It is a tragedy of failed organizational ethics. At the early stages of investigation, and without pre-judging any relevant parties or delving into medical matters, already several organizational ethics lessons surface. Read more →

Lance Armstrong and the Contagion of Unethical Behavior

(As first published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on October 23, 2012)

The dangers of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal reach far beyond performance-enhancing drugs.

When the news of Lance Armstrong’s doping allegations hit what we thought was the media and judicial nadir this summer, a friend of mine’s upstanding, informed, college-bound son irritably commented that he didn’t see the point of “all of this.” If everyone does it—and everyone does, according to him—why not legalize it? What he was saying, as many others have, is that taking performance-enhancing drugs has become normalized within our ethics framework—even though it is illegal and a clear violation of sporting event regulations. Read more →