ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the figure of the witness to articulate, manifest and even manages global ethics. It presents practices in the global industries of international health research involving human subjects and pharmaceutical drug development. The chapter discusses philosophers John Rawls, Claudia Card and Allen Buchanan to discuss concerns regarding the 'least advantaged members of society' and 'global basic structure' in the context of global inequality. It focuses in particular, upon the pedagogic rhetoric, then move to issues around a standard of care. In reference to 'natural distribution' of 'talents' and the 'contingencies of social circumstances', Rawls writes: Rawls includes in his unnecessary or contingent, human scenarios the unjust 'basic structure of societies that incorporate the arbitrariness found in nature'. Card writes: It is not enough to confront the inequities of the 'natural lottery' from which we may inherit various physical and psychological assets and liabilities.
