The profit motive behind too much medical research.

A conflict of interest in scientific and medical research "between the investigation and correct treatment of illness ... and the financial objective of making a profit" was addressed in a papal message to an April 5-6 international conference on conflicts of interest in science and medicine sponsored by the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Vatican released the papal message April 11, which was addressed as a letter to Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, apostolic nuncio to Poland. The pope said that "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 of those unable to pay." For example, the pope said, the pharmaceutical industry, "driven by the pursuit of profit and catering to what could be called 'medicine of desires' ... has favored research which as 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." The pope expressed concern about how priorities are set for pharmaceutical research, as well as about cost-containment imperatives in hospital medical care. His letter was written in English. The text follows.