Criminal Minds

A few weeks back, one of my FaceBook friends posted the following query to his status: “Is a recommendation from a friend "tainted" if that friend gets a commission if you buy that product or service? How about if they tell you they are getting paid to recommend it?”

My initial response was, no – as a consultant, I pride myself on my objectivity. I can rise above the temptation to make money and not let financial gain influence my recommendations. However, as the days wore on, I came to a stunning realization – I’m not that good.

Oh, I try to be good. I usually am good. Often, even when I am not being good, I like to think of myself as good – I always believe that I am doing the right thing, even when I am not.

You see, as humans, we are victims of our human nature. Dale Carnegie pointed out that we are incapable of seeing ourselves as ‘bad’ – even when we are doing bad things. He claimed that even Al Capone thought of himself as an honest business man.


This is not a character flaw – it’s just the way we are wired – I am sure that it has something to do with our basic instinct for self preservation.

Being in the medical field, and being from New Jersey, I have known a few Doctor’s named Gandhi in my day. Since they share a surname with one of the greatest human beings ever to walk the earth, can we then assume that they (or any other Doctor for that matter) won’t let the free lunches and honorariums that the drug companies give influence their decision to prescribe that company’s products over another, less generous company’s?

Of course not. First of all, none of these Doctor Gandhis were related to the famous activist (at least not in this lifetime). On a more serious note, they are human beings, and therefore subject to the same falibilities and weaknesses as the rest of us.

Hey, I’d bet that even Mahatma snuck a cookie or 2 during that famous hunger strike.


We have to realize that all Doctors are human beings, just like the rest of us. OK, I know that some Doctors will disagree with this statement – they may feel that they are superior to most of us and able to rise above such temptations – but, like Capone, they are just fooling themselves. Even if there is one doctor out of every hundred who can rise above the influence and remain totally objective when prescribing medications, that still leaves 99 others who are influenced to some degree. How can I be so certain? Do you really think that pharmaceutical companies would spend billions every year on Pill-ola if it wasn’t effective?

OK, so none of us are perfect – even when we try to be. The Doctors who insist that they are not being influenced by what amounts to bribes by pharmaceutical companies are simply delusional. None of us are really THAT good.

This raises the big question – knowing what we know, how can we continue to let pharmaceutical companies bribe our doctors on matters affecting our health and well being?

Beats the Hell out of me.





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