Defining Moments

114 D

EFINING

M

OMENTS

the minister of health, ‘‘We are relieved of the moral burden weighing

on our shoulders.’’ In other words, the moral burden rested elsewhere,

so protesters and boycotters should paint their bull’s-eyes on other

organizational targets.

Finally, how had Sakiz defined Roussel-Uclaf’s role in society?

He certainly did not take the easy way out. Sakiz could have pleased

his boss in Germany and avoided years of controversy and boycotts

by withdrawing entirely from the market for contraceptives and

other reproductive drugs, which is what virtually all American drug

companies have done. To justify this approach, he could have defined

Roussel-Uclaf’s social role in standard, familiar terms, as the property

of its shareholders. Thus, he could ...