Murder or suicide?

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If a person dies because the cost of his/her medication is too high, and s/he can’t afford to buy it, is it considered suicide or murder? If pharmaceutical companies price medication knowing that it’s out of reach to some, there is INTENTION. If someone knows not taking certain meds will cause death, there is also INTENTION.
 
Intercat said:
If pharmaceutical companies price medication knowing that it’s out of reach to some, there is INTENTION.
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There need not be a morally evil intention in setting a price point.
Intercat said:
If someone knows not taking certain meds will cause death, there is also INTENTION.
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If the medication requires funds beyond the means of the purchaser, How is there any ill intention attached to not buying?

If they are affordable, but One chooses not to buy them, the Intention need not be suicide. It might be to apply limited funds to other good ends.
 
Intention would be if you have $20 and you need a script that cost $15 and you need $20 to get gas. Do you NEED gas? You NEED your meds.
 
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If you gave someone a peanut butter sandwich suspecting it’s possible that person has a peanut allergy, and the person dies? Murder? If you know some people can’t buy meds because you’ve priced them too high so you can have a larger profit and people die? Not murder?
 
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Are your questions coming from some situation going on in your life? If it is, then the details of the situation are very important to consider.

If this is just a hypothetical question, it’s not a very useful one. The whole premise of ‘is it murder or suicide’ is a non-starter. It’s neither. Life just isn’t as simple as a math equation, or a multiple choice question.
 
Unfortunately, I don’t see life in a lot of shades of grey. I never thought of Catholicism as anything but black and white. It’s either a sin or it’s not. The question originates from the state our country is in presently. People losing health care, prices of meds going through the roof. Does Jesus work in shades if grey? Or is He pretty much black and white?
 
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By legal definition, it is neither.
 
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Throughout history, there have been many people who died because they could not afford the medical care or other healthy things, like decent food, that a wealthier person could afford. However, we would need to look at a specific case to see if, in that case, some particular person committed a sin. We cannot paint with a broad brush because there are all kinds of reasons and facts that go into each individual situation of why a drug is priced at a certain level, who priced it there, who is seeking to buy it, whether there are alternatives, whether the person makes a free choice to spend the money elsewhere, whether this is “extraordinary means to preserve life”, whether the drug would be certain to work, etc.
 
The pharma companies do not price their meds so people will die or just for greed, (or else they would be more astronomical) they do it to pay their loans (the ones they needed to do the research) and to fund future studies and research for new drugs.

Most of their profit would come from selling vast amounts of their drugs to most of the population, through their own products or licensing it to other vendors as generic drugs. If anything they probably have ‘cures’ or at least better meds and simple don’t release them* or just don’t take the necessary steps to fully flesh out the right pill.

*Cancer is huge and big bucks, I doubt they will ever ‘find’ the cure.
 
You could also say the same about a poor farmer, husband, father who lives near a destitute family. Sure he could share his food then maybe his kids would go from being decently feed to malnurished, but then the destitute family would also get by at a malnurished level. Maybe he could just do it for a few days, but what if they will not move to a more prosperous area with better employment/fertile land etc. What if there were more pharma companies, creating more competition and leading to more research and solutions and eventually better prices.
 
There are many things wrong with healthcare today.

There are companies who are price gauging.

However, I think we often forget that one of the reasons medicine is so high in the US is that we are shouldering the brunt of developmental costs. These costs range from the salaries of the scientists who research and develop, to the equipment to what is paid out in trials and to market it. The figures start in the millions and go into the billions, especially when you factor in drugs that fail.

I think there’s a tough line

“there’s a medicine that can save you but it’s unaffordable”

Because that medicine was developed and people have to be paid for that. Depriving them of the food, shelter, and clothing that they get with their wages would be wrong. It’s not an easy question.

And with new medicines and surgical techniques changing all the time what is considered “standard” and what is “extraordinary” is changing all the time. Pneumonia used to be a leading cause of death and paired with TB and gastro infections killed more than 50% of the population. Now, pneumonia is the only one on the chart and it’s a fraction of a percent when combined with flu. So our target of what is deadly to a particular society is always moving.
 
But, there aren’t. And if the farmer, at least TRIES to improve conditions for the impoverished family, he is doing Christ’s work “Feed the hungry.” to the best of his ability. I’m going to deviate just a hair, although there is a connection. Do you agree with (or understand) the Church’s premise that if a mother and child are at risk during the birth process, the mother should die and the child should live?
 
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Yours is the most responsible answer I’ve seen so far. Thank you. There is no correct answer, but for those people at the end of the spectrum on both sides, greed and abject poverty, I think one brush can be used. It is a choice. A pound of butter or an epi pen. I guess it depends on how important butter is to the person.
 
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This is not the Church’s premise. The Church teaches that there are two patients, and doctors should do their best to save both.

Other than that, the Church’s premise is that neither ought to be killed.
 
Another good answer. Besides wanting an answer, I’m looking to see people think. Give me information to chew on. I’d love to get an opinion from a priest.
 
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The Church teaches that ordinary care must not be withheld, but that a person is permitted to refuse extraordinary care if it will be burdensome to himself or others. This can include financial burden.
 
Intercat said:
What about Martin Shkreli?
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I did note there are criminals. There is NO excuse for criminal price gouging.

However, what I was trying to impart was that good medicine–top-notch drugs–are EXPENSIVE. And I didn’t even elaborate on the human trial part of the process. In order to prove a new drug works, you need a double-blind study. That means hundreds of people have to be willing to put their lives at risk and get a placebo. And they NEED to be compensated for that.

So it becomes very difficult to ask people not to put a price on that. The truth is that in the development of said expensive drug someone more than likely died for it to happen.
 
hoping4more said:
The pharma companies do not price their meds so people will die or just for greed, (or else they would be more astronomical) they do it to pay their loans (the ones they needed to do the research) and to fund future studies and research for new drugs.
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Sadly in the US today, that model is antiquated. Todays companies are publicly held and traded. The company answers to the shareholders, it exists to turn a profit for those shareholders.

It is not uncommon for pharma companies to cut back or shut down R & D completely, assuming that the academic world will do the research.

The profit is in the patent and when that patent is not making enough $$, the decision is made to raise the price of the medication.

You might find this article to be of interest High Drug Prices And Their Human Cost | Michigan Health Lab
 
The Church may have changed that particular premise since I learned it. That was a long time ago. May I inquire as to on what do you base your answer?
 
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