Nestle And Their Contribution To Infant Malnourishment Case Study

Nestlé and their contribution to infant malnourishment in third world countries

Every company faces ethical dilemmas in their dealings with customers and conducting business in multiple companies adds to the difficulty in adopting ethical models that conform to nation’s policies throughout the world. Nestlé, known for their chocolate and confections also holds a large share in the breast milk substitute or formula market and in the past few decades has been under sever scrutiny for the ethics employed in the advertisement and distribution of formulas in third world countries. For one employee’s opinion the company crossed an ethical and moral line by bribing healthcare workers into promoting free samples of their product in order to secure

As rational adults we are ethically and morally responsible for all life that is under our protection whether we are related to an infant or assess one to be at risk of harm, abandonment, maltreatment and abuse. There are many ethical frameworks in which we can make this argument. From a business perspective, in the manufacturing and advertising of products for infants and children, strong ethics must be the bedrock of any decision or strategy in the promotion and sales of these products. In the mid-1990s, Nestlé was accused of violating human rights in third world countries where its promotion practices of baby formula inevitable turned mothers from breastfeeding to bottle feeding just long enough to dry up a mother’s milk source making the mother dependent on the formula. Not only were some of these practices illegal, but also radically unethical from both a Utilitarian and Kantian

(Chaudhary & Soni, 2013) This implies that no matter the situation, an ethical practice produces the greatest benefit both financially and existentially. In other words, what is the proper balance between what is monetarily the best for the company while keeping in mind what brings the most happiness and greatest good to both the company and consumer? From Nestlé’s point of view this thought process ended at what is good for the company financially. As a world leader in the food manufacturing industry they were trying to cement their inclusion in the baby formula industry specifically in third world countries. Where there are babies there is business. However, the company’s thought process never included the customer’s happiness and rights to life since specific marketing tactics were imposed, specifically aimed at making mothers reliant on Nestlé formula products. This brought not only sadness to families but many infant deaths due to malnourishment. From this utilitarian perspective then, ethically, Nestlé never once considered the customer in these third world countries, but rather targeted them because they knew they could build a reliance on the product that was considered a necessity to life