Marketing novel devices in medicine with reference to gynaecological innovations : ethical dimensions

Abstract

New scientific and technological discoveries in all spheres of Medicine continuously challenge the boundaries of healthcare. To this end, the discipline is considered progressive and accomplished. The birth of this heavily professionalized discipline has leveraged the potential for the healthcare industry to innovate, regulate and disseminate proprietary products with relative ease. The rise and fall of four novel gynaecological devices represent excellent examples of ethical dilemmas in clinical medicine. This paper aims to deconstruct the power versus knowledge conflict, and suggest that reappraisal and recourse to Aristotelian virtue ethics will assist in shifting the decisional power balance primarily towards the physician.