Food and Drug Agencies
Because foods and drugs are intimately involved with the quality of life, their purity and safety have been of deep concern to many citizens and the governmental agencies dedicated to human welfare. Throughout the world the purpose of food and drug agencies is to certify that foods are safe and drugs effective. Consequently these agencies have as one of their chief goals the prevention of adulteration—debasing foods or drugs by diluting them with less valuable ingredients or adding substances to make the food or drug appear to be what it is not. Adulteration has ethical consequences; for example, the dilution of a cancer drug may hasten rather than hinder death. Corrupt companies can use scientific knowledge and chemical techniques to thwart detection of their adulterated products, forcing food and drug agencies to develop advanced techniques to ferret out fraudulent drugs and thereby protect the public from harm. Science and technology are thus inextricably involved in the ethics of food and drug agencies and industries.
Early History
During the Latin Middle Ages writers of herbals and medical treatises expressed ethical qualms about adulteration and proposed remedies. These writers found that scarcity of supply played a role in fraudulent practices.
