Giving Compass' Take:

• Jeanne Lenzer explains that the medical industry's charity is often self-serving and often fails to help - sometimes even harms - the recipients. 

• How can CSR be better oriented around serving the recipients? How can organizations that cause harm through 'charity' be held accountable? 

• Learn about being an effective donor. 

Roberto Viezaga, a 38-year-old Bolivian farmer, was on the verge of death when the medical device maker Medtronic stepped in with a donation that would save his life. Viezaga had arrythmias caused by Chagas disease, a parasitic infection that can affect the heart, and he was passing out so often that it threatened his ability to work the family’s potato, corn, and wheat farm. His wife and six young children depended on his work for their survival. So when Medtronic gave him a free pacemaker, it helped his entire family. The surgery made a world of difference: A picture of Viezaga after implantation shows him smiling, healthy, and surrounded by family.

But was this an act of disinterested corporate benevolence, or was it something else?

Charity is generally described as the act of giving money, goods, or time to the unfortunate. Two players are involved: the giver, who gives without expected payment in return, and the receiver, who is in need. Increasingly, philanthropy in the medical industry is failing on both counts. Givers don’t just hope for a return on investment, they demand it; if a philanthropic venture isn’t projected to generate a profit, it is abandoned. And the recipients of corporate largesse are often doctors and hospitals, not patients. Indeed, recent history tells us that when a corporation does take on a philanthropic project, not only does their largesse rarely improve our collective public health; it often leaves us worse off.

Read the full article about the medical industry's charity by Jeanne Lenzer at RealClearScience.