Is Whistleblowing Morally Permissible?

Whistleblowing is the act of a person who brings to light wrongdoings, often illegal, of another person or organization. A whistleblower will seek an external means, such as a news outlet or regulatory agency, to expose wrongdoings after trying to resolve the situation internally within the organization. Often, a whistleblower is weary of the legality of their claims and retaliation from the organization or person that their claim exposes. There are two types of conditions to whistle blow, when it is morally permissible and when it is morally obligatory. In order to explore these conditions, two case studies are presented in the following. Whistleblowing is morally permissible when serious and considerable non-physical harm to the public

An example of this can be seen in the case study of John Kopchinski exposing the pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer’s illegal marketing of their prescription painkiller Bextra. John Kopchinski was hired as a sales representative after leaving the Army and first complained to management about the promotion of Bextra beyond Federal Drug Agency (FDA) approved use. Sales representatives for the company were instructed to get doctors to prescribe the drug before and after surgery as part of their standard care. This command was illegal because the FDA had already rejected Pfizer’s proposal to do this due to the risk of cardiovascular problems. After exhausting his options within the company, Kopchinski filed a qui tam lawsuit against the company [2]. A qui tam lawsuit is a type of civil lawsuit that a whistleblower brings under the False Claims Act and gives rewards to the whistleblower if the lawsuit recovers funds for the government [3]. In this example, the whistleblower, John Kopchinski, tried to resolve the conflict within the company before seeking an external means to expose the situation. Also, physical harm to the public is present in this example as defined by the FDA. Ultimately, Kopchinski won his lawsuit requiring Pfizer to pay $1.8 billion in fines to settle the case. Kopchinski himself received $51.5 million since it was filed as a qui