The whole field of drug research has become a minefield of sensitive issues with the opponents entrenched at opposite extremes taking pot shots at each other. The attacks made on drug research and the pharmaceutical industry in particular have become so venomous that an attempt needed to be made to provide a balanced ethical appraisal of the situation. Neither pro- nor antagonists are fully right, but some common grounds need to be found. The author believes that this commons grounds resides in the religious and philosophical foundations on which western industrial society has been built.