Commercialisation and the Corrosion of the Ideals of Medical Professionals

In recent times, medicine has been commercialised. It has been subjected to market forces in such a way that many medical practices - which were once governed by the State or by principles of gift - are now fully commercialised. Although there are undoubtedly advantages to such commercialisation, at least for some sectors of society, serious concerns have been raised about the effects on the proper ideals of medicine that the market brings in its wake.

In this chapter, I explore one such objection, the Corrosion Thesis, according to which the market corrodes our attitudes towards practices and entities that should be regarded as intrinsically valuable. I consider how various forms of commercialisation potentially corrode the ideals of medical professionals in ways that can only be harmful to practices of medicine and, ultimately, to the population at large. The market presents health professionals with various moral hazards that requires both vigilance on the part of health professionals and legislation to restrict the possibilities of behaviour in which the pursuit of profit overshadows significant moral values.