Bioethics
At Baxter, bioethics covers a range of issues, including animal welfare, clinical trials, genetically modified organisms and the cloning and use of human embryos. The company revised its Bioethics Policy in 2005 to reflect technology advancements, regulatory changes and the latest standards, using input from a geographically and functionally diverse team to ensure a broad perspective.
The policy includes Bioethics Guiding Principles that address topics such as product safety and efficacy, stakeholder concerns, risk-benefit analysis, legal and regulatory compliance, vendor conformance to the company's standards, clinical trials, animal welfare and biological diversity. Baxter's senior leadership considers those principles, in addition to the advice of appropriate scientific and ethical advisors, to determine whether to proceed in areas requiring consideration of bioethical issues. To be justified, the potential benefits to individual subjects and society must be proportionate to or outweigh possible risks.
For more information, see Baxter's Bioethics Policy and Bioethics Position Statements.
