Letter to H.E. Msgr. Jósef Kowalczyk on the
occasion of an International Conference in Warsaw
the Church looks to scientists and researchers
with hope
and trust
To The Most Reverend Józef
Kowalczyk
Apostolic Nuncio in
I am pleased to learn that you will be present
at the International Conference to be held at Warsaw on 5 - 6 April 2002 on the
theme: "Conflict of Interest and its Significance in Science and
Medicine", and I ask you kindly to convey my heartfelt best wishes to the
organizers and participants. The subject of the Conference is well worth
bringing to the attention of society as a whole. In fact, this is a question
which affects not just the programming and development of medical research and
science, but the well-being of peoples and the very dignity and prestige of
scientific learning itself. In recent times the issue has emerged as one of the
most serious ethical problems facing the international community.
In advanced societies, research, and
specifically biomedical research, is one of the most far-reaching and dynamic
fields of innovation and progress, drawing investment both from public bodies
and from private groups, often of a multinational character.
While it is certainly proper for a firm in the
field of biomedical or pharmaceutical research to seek an appropriate return on
investment, it sometimes happens that overriding financial interests prompt
decisions and products which are contrary to truly human values and to the
demands of justice, demands which cannot be separated from the very aim of
research. As a result, a conflict can arise between economic interests on the
one hand and, on the other, medicine and health-care. Research in this field
must be pursued for the good of all, including those without means.
In other words, there is a risk that
science-based businesses and health care structures can be set up not in order
to provide the best possible care for people in accordance with their human
dignity, but in order to maximize profits and increase business, with a
predictable lowering in the quality of service for those unable to pay.
In this way there is created in the field of
science and medicine a conflict of interest between the investigation and
correct treatment of illnesses – which is what scientific and medical research
is all about – and the financial objective of making a profit.
Today this conflict is obvious in a number of
specific ways. First of all, it can be seen in the selection of research
programmes, where those programmes which hold out the promise of a quick profit
are often preferred to other research which involves higher costs and a greater
investment of time because it respects the demands of ethics and justice.
Driven by the pursuit of profit and catering to what could be called "the
medicine of desires", the pharmaceutical industry has favoured research
which has already placed on the world market products contrary to the moral
good, including products which are not respectful of procreation and even
suppress human life already conceived.
Even as biomedical research continues to
perfect methods of artificial human fertilization, little funding and little
research is directed to the prevention and treatment of infertility. The recent
decision in some countries to use human embryos or even to produce or clone
them in order to harvest stem-cells for therapeutic purposes has the backing of
large investors. Yet ethically acceptable and scientifically valid programmes
using adult cells for the same therapies, with no less success, draws little
support because lower profits are anticipated.
Another example of such conflict of interest is
the way in which priorities are set for pharmaceutical research. In developed
countries, for instance, huge sums are spent on producing medicines that serve
hedonistic purposes, or in marketing different brands of already available and
equally effective medicines; while in poorer areas of the world drugs are not
available for the treatment of devastating and deadly diseases. In these
countries access to even the most basic medicines is almost impossible because
the profit motive is absent. Likewise, in the case of certain uncommon diseases
the industry offers no financial support for research and the production of
medicines, because there is no prospect of profits: these are the so-called
"orphan drugs".
The very ethics of research can be undermined
by the conflict of interest of which we are speaking, as for example when
financial groups claim the right to permit the publication of research data
depending on whether or not such data are in the interest of the groups
themselves.
Even medical care in hospitals is increasingly
subject to the imperatives of cost-containment. Although it is right to avoid
waste in health care administration and in treatment, it is not right to deny
proper care or permit the level of treatment to be lowered for the sake of
greater financial profits.
The list of such conflicts will undoubtedly
expand, if a utilitarian approach is allowed to prevail over the genuine quest
for knowledge. This is what happens for example when the media, often financed
by the same business interests, provoke exaggerated expectations and spawn a
kind of pharmacological consumerism. At the same time they tend to pass over in
silence those means of protecting health which require people to act
responsibly and with self-discipline.
For science to retain its true independence and
for researchers to retain their freedom, ethical values must be brought to the
fore. To subject everything to profit involves a real loss of freedom for the
scientist. And those who would uphold scientific freedom by appealing to a
"values-free science" prepare the way for the supremacy of economic
interests.
In a broader view, the pre-eminence of the
profit motive in conducting scientific research ultimately means that science
is deprived of its epistemological character, according to which its primary
goal is discovery of the truth. The risk is that when research takes a
utilitarian turn, its speculative dimension, which is the inner dynamic of
man’s intellectual journey, will be diminished or stifled.
For scientific research in the biomedical field
to be restored to its full dignity, researchers themselves must be fully
engaged. It is primarily up to them to guard jealously and, if necessary, to
reclaim the essential meaning of that mastery and dominion over the visible
world which the Creator entrusted to man as a task and duty. As I wrote in my
first Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, this meaning "consists in the
priority of ethics over technology, in the primacy of the person over things,
and in the superiority of spirit over matter" (No. 16). Consequently, I
added, "all phases of present-day progress must be followed attentively.
Each stage of that progress must, so to speak, be x-rayed from this point of
view" (ibid.).
Public authorities too, as guardians of the
common good, have a role to play in ensuring that research is directed to the
good of people and of society, and in tempering and reconciling the pressures
of divergent interests. By issuing guidelines and by allocating public funds in
accordance with the principles of subsidiarity, they should actively support
those fields of research not sponsored by private interests. They should be
prepared to prevent research which harms human life and dignity or which
ignores the needs of the world’s poorest peoples, who are generally less well
equipped for scientific research.
In offering good wishes for the success of this
important Conference, I wish to reaffirm that the Church looks to scientists
and researchers with hope and trust. In this sense I renew the invitation which
I addressed to Catholic intellectuals in my Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, and I extend it to all researchers of good will: may you "be
present and active in the leading centres where culture is formed, in schools
and universities, in places of scientific and technological research",
deeply committed to being "at the service of a new culture of life by
offering serious and well documented contributions, capable of commanding
general respect and interest by reason of their merit" (No. 98). It is in
virtue of this broad vision of commitment to the truth and the common good that
medical research and learning have written pages of genuine advancement, deserving
of humanity’s recognition and gratitude.
With these thoughts, I invoke Almighty God’s
assistance upon the work of the Conference and I cordially impart my blessing
to all those taking part.