Yes, it's called personal responsibility when the risks are disclosed and one assumes those risks. Every med has side effects. How could "pharma" be financially responsible for every individual who experiences a disclosed side effect?
I agree to this point to a significant extent. I am also a big believer in personal responsibility.
I'm not attempting to be facetious here, but wouldn't it be more logical to go after the prescribing physicians instead? They are the ones whose duty it is to cause their patients no harm. They know what the potential side effects are, yet direct their patients to use these concoctions manufactured by the pharmaceutical companies anyway. Should they not have a duty to incorporate more methodologies friendlier to a patient's health and well being? Should they not be culpable? Perhaps the name medical doctor absolves them of this liability. Otherwise, go see a naturopathic doctor, chiropractic doctor, or maybe even a witch doctor (OK, I'm being a little facetious with that last suggestion).
Perhaps this is the reason I don't bother with the vast majority of medical doctors for more than a diagnosis or only work with those that get the big picture and aim to root out the cause of the problem (yet I still struggle with a lot of what they advise). Perhaps this is why a greater number of individuals are more interested in, or are already following, natural methods and remedies. The fortunate ones with little interest in their health and the odd acute malady are likely to remain blissfully ignorant. However those with chronic health concerns are more aware of these issues and are apt to seek out better alternatives. The growth in this interest for alternative treatments and remedies may be most realized in the myriad of syndromes, disorders, and complexes manufactured by the medical industrial complex themselves. Individuals desire something better than the typical poison, cut, burn treatments and aspire to heal their bodies.
So, perhaps it is most logical to point the fingers at doctors and not the pharmaceutical companies.
