A Matter of Principle Nancy Smith was hired May 1, 1988, as the as- the development of an alternative formula sociate director of Medical Research at a major would take at least three months. pharmaceutical company. The terms of Ms. The pharmaceutical's management prequotats- Smith's employment were not fixed by con- sured the team to proceed with the existing tract, and as a result she is considered to be an formula, and the research project team finally &-will" employee. Two years later Ms. Smith agreed. Nancy Smith maintained her opposition- was promoted to Director of Medical Research to the high saccharin formula and indicated- Therapeutics, a section that studied that the Hippocratic Oath prevented her productive drugs. from giving the formula to old people and chil dren- One of the company's research projects in-. Nancy Smith was the only medical person volved the development of loperamide-a liq- on the team, and the grounds for her decision uid treatment for acute and chronic diarrhea was that saccharin was a possible carcinogen. to be used by infants, children, and older per- Therefore Nancy Smith was unable to partici- sons who were unable to take solid medication. pate in the clinical testing. The formula contained saccharin in an amount Upon learning that she was unwilling to that was 44 times higher than that the Food participate in the clinical testing, the man- and Drug Administration permitted in 12 agement removed her from the project and ounces of an artificially sweetened soft drink. gave her a demotion. Her demotion was post- There are, however, no promulgated standards ed, and she was told that management con- for the use of saccharin in drugs. sidered her unpromotable. She was charged The research project team responsible for specifically with being irresponsible, lacking in the development of loperamide unanimously good judgment, unproductive, and uncoop- agreed that because of the high saccharin con- erative with marketing. Nancy Smith had tent, the existing formula loperamide was un- never been criticized by supervisors before. suitable for distribution in the United States Nancy Smith resigned because she believed (apparently the formula was already being dis- she was being punished for refusing to pur- tributed in Europe). The team estimated that sue a task she thought unethical

Was Nancy Smith terminated or did she resigned voluntarily?

Should the pharmaceutical's management have the right to terminate Nancy Smith if she refused to participate in the clinical testing?

if you were the judge in such a court case how would you rule and on what grounds?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Nancy Smith Case Analysis Termination vs Resignation Technically Nancy Smith resigned However the unfavorable conditions created by the demotion and p... View the full answer