Situation: Millions of people have died a slow painful death from cigarettes and furthermore the tobacco industry knew about it.
Tobacco and Death vs. Challenger disaster:
the Challenger disaster was an obvious ethical lapse as seven astronauts died suddenly and violently in front of millions.
the Smoking disaster is quiet. Smoking kills individuals through lung cancer which leads to months of painful and progressive debilitation until death usually in a hospital witnessed only by nurses and a few family members.
Smokers life expectancy is also lowered from 10 to 20 years. (less concrete and emotional)
CAUSE:
millions of death due to lung cancer from smoking does not outrage us like the Challenger disaster because:
1) Probabilities and Populations rather than certainties and individual persons.
-causation is a direct and mechanical matter to people
-statistical causation--> a probability of what will happen to a population or group but says nothing about particular individual cases.
-w/ statistical causes, the immediate cause and effect is often not immediately seen and not intuitively obvious.
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2) Causation from another angle (an unethical angle)
-The tobacco industry has engaged in an aggressive program of misinformation, obfuscation, denial, and opposition that has clouded the connection b/w smoking and disease in the minds of the public
-they have continually asserted that the existence of a "controversy" about whether smoking really "causes" disease, when in fact there was no controversy except of their own manufacture.
Statistics is one of the most important tools of medicine and public health in modern times, revealing the probabilistic causes involved in many kinds of diseases and disorders.
John Stuart Mill, one of the 4 methods of logical inference.
"concomitant variation" by which an increase in an independent variable leads to an increase in a dependent variable, and a decrease yields a decrease.
*even though the specific mechanism at work might not be known, we are justified in concluding that one causes the order.
EX) Son of an iron smith is strong.
-with statistics you never really prove anything, you only fail to disprove or disprove.
This is why most people know smoking is deadly and human caused "Global warming" and why other people are able to reject both.
tobacco industry is similar to sophists
sophists debated only to win and get what they wanted. They manipulated language to meet their own end. Our ethical judgments of them has been negative.
SOPHISTS"clever users of words to manipulate and deceive"-interested in winning arguments, prevailing in debates, and achieving favorable judgments for oneself-the techniques of the sophists as traditionally represented do seem to closely resemble those of the tobacco industry, and our ethical judgment of them is similarly negative-sophists insist that every topic has two sides worthy of argument, and their reputation for contention for the sake of contention and for the sake of thier self-interest
-public witch hunt of the tobacco industry with lawsuits based on: damaging health effects, addictiveness, and advertising methods.
-Charges against Tobacco Industry (on an unprecedented magnitude):
fraud
conspiracy
negligence
false advertising
product liability
Industry:
-sophists causation used in their own self interest
-scientist who quibble on causation
-profitability which gives the industry huge amounts of resources.
Claimants:
-have few resources
-have limited time
-tobacco industry usually settles cases thus no precedent is every set for further cases
The Case:
The legal system as been building a case with tens of millions of pages of documents but they are hard to understand b/c the industry is:
-highly secretive
-closed
-guarded
so the documents are worded in obtuse and contorted ways to disguise their substance.
or,
-loopholes:
"They made sure all discussions about health research and about policy decisions were made in the presence of lawyers so that they could be hidden from discovery under the rules of lawyer-client privilege."
-hide "smoking guns"
"Files were purged and potentially incriminating documents were shredded" and the remaining documents were not indexed on lists to be discovered by claimants
1950s
-several reports linked smoking with lung cancer. (Dr. Wynder in the The Journal of the American Medical Association)
- Tobacco Industry took a defensive strategy based upon creating better public relations.
-their plan was to form a research group of "independent" scientist to to get the real facts.
1st causation - "there is no proof" which may be true but the ethical issue is how to represent this lack of absoluteness.
the RESULT:
-“A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” published in all the major newspapers:
1st - it articulates a position central to the industry’s subsequent justifications of its activities (causation and proof have not been demonstrated
2nd - it shows frank disdain by the industry of scientific, medical, and technical research accepted by nearly all medical and scientific professionals outside the industry
3rd - it attempts to lay upon industry a mantle of scientific honesty and rigor that has been found to be false and deliberately misleading
* it is a technical documents that portrays the industry as the protector of public health and an authority on scientific rigor. (BIASED)
Victim Stance- is taken by the industry, but in reality the public is the victim. (this is popular sophistic method)
- 4 points in document
1st - lung cancer has many possible causes (doesn’t mention smoking was extremely common)
2nd - “no agreement among the authorities”
3rd - “no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes”
4th - conclusions drawn from statistics can be misleading or confusing
1960s
The US Surgeon General became involved and theTobacco Industry running out of reputable scientists willing to endorse them
- Nicotine is stated out right to be addictive
- Tobacco Industry principal interest is to protect itself over health of public (pg 170 excerpt).
1970s
- the use of filters?
would be admitting harmful health effects of smoking, tradeoff may be more desirable by public
- solution?
told public that it was done because of perception of public that smoking is linked to health problems
-pg 171 excerpt
Tobacco Industry “technical documents” "acknowledges" health hazard (misleading) then denies it based on "controversy".
- repeatedly claim that controversy and disagreement exist
- used "belief" in a deceptive, self-serving use
- public and government kept in the dark by (lawyer-client confidentiality)
1980s
- page 173 excerpt
"the intent here is to reinterpret or re-represent a scientific finding in such a way that would be less damaging to the industry"
- Control over information tightened even more to controlling the entire reporting process and whole documents
- Documents show J. K. Wells of B and W sent instructions for the purging of potentially incriminating files. unethical information control)
- Lawyer-client confidentiality was used all the time
1990s
- Secret documents come to light from whistleblowers and disenchanted insiders
- Tobacco Industry backed into a corner from private and public perspective
- Liggett Group (Major Tobacco Company) admitted nicotine was addictive but other tobacco companies distance themselves away from it.
- States start suing Tobacco Companies successfully
A SINGLE WORD
- Management says they don't "believe" nicotine is addictive, but documents appear that indicate otherwise (management knew as well)
- because of the word believe the department of Justice did not pursue perjury.
- Industry defers to public health authorities by putting statements such as “Smoking causes cancer.” on boxes but not necessarily agreeing with the statements
GRAPHICAL IMAGES
- Words difficult to pin down regarding their meaning, interpretation, and ethical significance. Graphical Images are even harder (photographs, etc.)
- R.J. Reynolds: launched campaign geared towards children (ages 9 to 24) to smoke his brand of cigarettes after studies showed that most people were faithful to the first brand of cigarettes smoked
- David McLean (Marlboro Man) was forced to smoke up to five packs of Marlboros a day in order to get the right advertising effect
- Graphical images also used to teach children about the harmful effects of smoking
ETHICAL APPRAISAL
Aristotle.
does not approve of the tactics used by the Tobacco Industry. The industry was unethical and was dishonest in their debate for why smoking is not unhealthy. Debate was pointless because the truth of whether smoking cigarettes is harmful to one’s health is already apparent.
Kant.
tobacco documents are clearly unethical because they do not act in a manner which could become a universal principle applying to everyone. The Tobacco Industry has not treated everyone in a way which they would want to be treated. They have continually opposed those working for the public good for the benefit of their industry. Utilitarian.
Utilitarian perspective weighs cost against benefits. Question is to whom? The Tobacco Industry’s plan follows that idea; however, few people outside the industry would view it as ethical.
Feminist Perspective and Ethics of Care.
Industry are unethical because they are impersonal corporations driven by their own goals and do not care that many people die a slow, painful death as a result of smoking.
