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This, in turn, directs our gaze to the fact that practical ethics can be based on a great variety of basic assumptions. From this perspective, different ethical systems are possible. For example, rule-based ethics is based on obedience to rules and laws, whereas goods-based ethics asks how proper behavior increases both material and immaterial goods, such as health.
Virtue-based ethics focuses on values such as courage and justice; in turn, utilitarian ethics uses the criterion of utility for the individual and for society as a whole. Responsibility-based ethics initially added the perspective of theology (Dietrich Bonnhoeffer) and, later on, of environmentalism (Hans Jonas).
But a philosophical discussion does not automatically generate a specific answer to the question "What can I do?", which is also asked by companies like Merck whose activities in the fields of research, development, and production have far-reaching effects on society and on our ideas about the people of the future.
In any case, Kant's answer to the question "What can I do?" was his categorical imperative, a principle that is still a benchmark in the field of ethics: "Act only according to that maxim which you can, at the same time, will to become a universal law." A positive aspect of this principle is that it does not release any individual from his or her responsibility for humanity as a whole.
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The Merck Bioethics Advisory Panel |
Since the beginning of 2011, renowned scholars have been advising Merck on bioethics issues. "At the very first meeting of the Merck Bioethics Advisory Panel, these high-ranking experts offered us completely new perspectives on a number of issues," says Florian Bieber, Chief Medical Officer of Merck and the Chairman of the ethics council.
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