Can I morally dispense birth control as a pharmacist if I know its intended purpose?

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Pharm4life

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I am graduating pharmacy school this May and am searching high and low for a community (retail) pharmacy position that would not involve birth control. I’ve found only a hand full of pharmacies across the country that are Prolife so my best shot is finding an outpatient pharmacy associated with a Catholic Hospital but some of these still dispense birth control. So, if I am unable to find a job without dispensing birth control, can I dispense birth control under material compliance? If I were to start a career including dispensing birth control would I be obligated to move my family if a different position opened and at what cost/distance? Personally my conscience is leading me that I could have a positive impact in a retail setting by informing patients and coworkers about the negative effects/mechanism of action of birth control and by offering alternatives if the opportunity would arise.
 
This is a hard decision. I don’t know what to tell you. I’d talk to a good priest.

I will say this; a lot of people sell ammunition. Sometimes it’s used for target practice, sometimes for hunting, and other times for killing.

Both girls I’ve dated have been on the birth control pill or patch - we had no intercourse - it was for menstrual cramps. My older sister, who is a virgin, has used it as well. There are lots of women who use the pills in a morally correct manner.

Does the cashier ask what the ammo is for? Unless it is a specialized store, then probably not.

Do you ask all your customers if they actually need the narcotics they are taking? If they are selling them to other people?
 
Pharm4life said:
I am graduating pharmacy school this May and am searching high and low for a community (retail) pharmacy position that would not involve birth control. I’ve found only a hand full of pharmacies across the country that are Prolife so my best shot is finding an outpatient pharmacy associated with a Catholic Hospital but some of these still dispense birth control. So, if I am unable to find a job without dispensing birth control, can I dispense birth control under material compliance? If I were to start a career including dispensing birth control would I be obligated to move my family if a different position opened and at what cost/distance? Personally my conscience is leading me that I could have a positive impact in a retail setting by informing patients and coworkers about the negative effects/mechanism of action of birth control and by offering alternatives if the opportunity would arise.
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This is worth a trip to www.vatican.va Code of Canon Law,
but from what I understand, the answer is no. God bless you for your prolife stand, and may he hold you up and watch over you if you end up having to find a new profession.

Steven
 
There are a lot of drugs that can be damaging. You should also know that a lot of pain killers, anti depressants, anti anxiety, add medicine, etc. will be abused. If you can’t handle dispensing birth control, why even study to become a pharmacist?

I worked at a liquor store for a while. My first couple of days were hard on me because I would be selling liquor to people at 10 in the morning that would shake when they gave me their money. I felt as though I was doing something wrong. I ended up talking to one of the guys I worked with and he just told me that if it wasn’t me it would be someone else. Me working there or not working there doesn’t change a thing. You aren’t going to find a pharmacy that doesn’t hand out birth control. One thing is for sure though, and that is that you shouldn’t judge people that do use it. You don’t know who they are and what they are doing with it.

Either way, unless you want to give up what you have studied so hard for, you are almost definitely going to have to give out birth control.
 
Ran across this quote from JPII for your profession…and related professions in General (of course we already know your "4-life!):

"A unique responsibility belongs to health-care personnel: doctors, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, men and women religious, administrators and volunteers. Their profession calls for them to be guardians and servants of human life. In today’s cultural and social context, in which science and the practice of medicine risk losing sight of their inherent ethical dimension, health-care professionals can be strongly tempted at times to become manipulators of life, or even agents of death. In the face of this temptation their responsibility today is greatly increased. Its deepest inspiration and strongest support lie in the intrinsic and undeniable ethical dimension of the health-care profession, something already recognized by the ancient and still relevant Hippocratic Oath, which requires every doctor to commit himself to absolute respect for human life and its sacredness.

Absolute respect for every innocent human life also requires the in relation to procured abortion and euthanasia. “Causing death” can never be considered a form of medical treatment, even when the intention is solely to comply with the patient’s request. Rather, it runs completely counter to the health-care profession, which is meant to be an impassioned and unflinching affirmation of life. Biomedical research too, a field which promises great benefits for humanity, must always reject experimentation, research or applications which disregard the inviolable dignity of the human being, and thus cease to be at the service of people and become instead means which, under the guise of helping people, actually harm them."

John Paul II EVANGELIUM VITAE
 
StevenFrancis said:
This is worth a trip to www.vatican.va Code of Canon Law,
but from what I understand, the answer is no. God bless you for your prolife stand, and may he hold you up and watch over you if you end up having to find a new profession.

Steven
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lol…this post is hilarious to me. You are basically saying “you spent years of your life and 10’s of thousands of dollars to become a pharmacist…but it goes against the church…figure something else out”

Seriously, just be a pharmacist, don’t think about it, and thats that. You aren’t working in an abortion clinic. You will be giving out drugs that were prescribed by doctors.
 
There is actually a conditional answer tho this one. Straight out, no. You need to ask to not distribute this product based on moral conflicts with it. I’m sure another pharmacist would be more than happy to do this job for you anyway. However, if you are going to lose your job over it, you may with the understanding that you are ONLY doing it to keep your job and would not under any other circumstance.
 
Pharm4life said:
I am graduating pharmacy school this May and am searching high and low for a community (retail) pharmacy position that would not involve birth control. I’ve found only a hand full of pharmacies across the country that are Prolife so my best shot is finding an outpatient pharmacy associated with a Catholic Hospital but some of these still dispense birth control. So, if I am unable to find a job without dispensing birth control, can I dispense birth control under material compliance?
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The answer is no, you cannot dispense birth control, so-called “emergency contraception,” abortion pill (RU486), nor euthanasia/assisted suicide prescriptions.

I suggest you go to the Catholic Bioethics Center website and also Pharmacists for Life (www.pfli.org) which are both conversant in various state and federal laws, conscience clauses, etc.
 
I don’t know if we can answer this one, but we CAN put you in the right direction. Talk to a priest.
 
bingbang said:
There are a lot of drugs that can be damaging. You should also know that a lot of pain killers, anti depressants, anti anxiety, add medicine, etc. will be abused.
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None of that is relevant. It is the *morality *of the act of dispensing certain drugs that is in question, not the effectiveness or side effects of taking a drug.
bingbang said:
If you can’t handle dispensing birth control, why even study to become a pharmacist?
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Perhaps because there is something in this country called freedom of religion and under the Civil Rights Act a person cannot be discriminated against in employment based on their religion. Catholics cannot be driven out of public life, they are citizens with rights. Our constitution provides protection against compelling a person to violate their religious beliefs and promises the free exercise of their religion.
bingbang said:
I worked at a liquor store for a while. My first couple of days were hard on me because I would be selling liquor to people at 10 in the morning that would shake when they gave me their money. I felt as though I was doing something wrong. I ended up talking to one of the guys I worked with and he just told me that if it wasn’t me it would be someone else. Me working there or not working there doesn’t change a thing.
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Selling liquor is not intrinsically evil nor is there formal cooperation with evil in this situation.

Not so with Catholic doctors who prescribe, or Catholic pharmacists who fill prescriptions for drugs used in intrinsically evil acts.
bingbang said:
You aren’t going to find a pharmacy that doesn’t hand out birth control. One thing is for sure though,
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This is not true. There are pro-life pharmacies that do not dispense such drugs.
bingbang said:
and that is that you shouldn’t judge people that do use it. You don’t know who they are and what they are doing with it.
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No one said anything about “judging” anyone. The Catholic pharmacist should be concerned with their own actions.
bingbang said:
Either way, unless you want to give up what you have studied so hard for, you are almost definitely going to have to give out birth control.
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Not true at all. There are many types of pharmacist positions that do not have anything to do with objectionable prescriptions. Hospitals, nursing homes, and many other areas are examples. Retail pharmacy is the place likely to have issues, and they can and are worked around every day by pro-life and Catholic pharmacists.
 
1ke said:
Selling liquor is not intrinsically evil nor is there formal cooperation with evil in this situation.

.
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This made me chuckle. I had just bought some really nice Brandy for a friend of mine and the dude who sold it to me goes to my chuch! 😉
 
Ummm… guys? Estrogen/progestin supplements (aka “birth control pills”) are not an intrinsic evil. Like bullets, they have both illegitimate uses (contraception) and legitimate ones (treating everything from heavy periods to polycystic ovarian syndrome). Dispensing them is not cooperation in evil, and is legitimate under canon law and Catholic moral teaching.

If you know, without a doubt, what they’re going to be used for, you probably cannot dispense them, but if you’re just filling prescriptions, you are crossing zero Catholic moral lines.

Thank you for consulting CAF and informing your conscience. Now go ahead. Green light.
 
Interesting that your concern is the Pill… And not condoms. As they are often sold in a pharm. setting. I’ll assume you would be equally mortified by condoms. Or a sponge, or spermicide, does a pharmasist fill a diaphram Rx? That doesn’t cause the body any damage.

It’s my experience that the pharmisist is NOT sent my medical record. And you don’t actually KNOW why a person is prescribed a drug. Granted there are some obvious reasons… it’s just that Birth Control is not JUST to control PG’s. I was prescribed BC so that I wouldn’t bleed to death monthly. I was 18, and not sexually active. (but you might just assume I was, huh???) Ok, death wasn’t a risk. But I had a hard time working when I had to hit the bathroom every 30 minutes. School was interferred with. Cramps…OMG, triggered vomitting. Periods so heavy that my iron counts were effected. (Never mind that the problem was fibroids… Sick of Doctors that don’t investigate. Took until I was in my 30’s to figure that out!)

It could be that a women is going through fertility treatments. They are often started with a month or 2 of birth control. (how do you know she won’t abstain??? During this time?)

Will you also be concerned about issuing fertility drugs? Some can be used with intercourse. Some of the same would also be used for IVF.

For example. Some drugs are actually prescribed for reasons they are not intended.

I recall taking a med. generally used for the nasuea related to chemo during my PG. Because I got so sick, I was at risk of starting pre mature labor due to vomiting.

Now, I personally think BC stinks. It does cause lots of problems.And I find, that when it’s prescribed to stop a symptom it’s just that. Rarely, anything is done for the actual problems. (That’s my personal experience) Which will infact be highlighted on the sheet you supply with the medication. So you WILL be educating your clientelle.

I also wonder if you will feel morally obligated to NOT sell Viagra. Now, I know in theory it’s sold so that people can actually HAVE sex. And it therefore doesn’t interfere with being open to life. But, what if the guy is single, and just wants to have sex with a girlfriend. That’s not ok is it? Also, WHAT if the reason he’s having problems is 'cause he eats like a pig, and the REAL problem is that his arteries are clogged, and the fact he can’t get busy has to do with the fact that his physical life is actually in jeapordy. It seem the MORAL thing to do is to educate him on exercise and proper diet to preserve his life. And not be so wrapped up in just having sex. Chances are he’s over the hill, and isn’t looking to have children anyway… meaning that he’s probably not REALLY open to children.

Also, I wonder how you will feel filling RX’s with known horrifying side effects that are not advertised? Or when a cheaper drug could be used safely instead. It’s usually the Pharmasist that KNOWS this. And then??? What about NOT filling a life saving med because insurance doesn’t cover it… and you’re staring at a parent who doesn’t have an extra $800.00 for the dose?

I know I sound sarcastic.I just don’t think this is your ONLY problem. Sorry to add to that.

Personally, I would recommend finding a small town type of pharmacy. Where you CAN get to know your clients, and then perhaps in a friendly fashion you can make suggestions. But, based on the things I’ve seen in Target, CVS and Walmart, you won’t have that job for very long. They already have problems with dispensing, because they rush the pharmasists to fill so many RXs per hour. Which is how children end up with an adult dose… Ok…off topic…

Good luck… You def. picked a conflicting profession to get into… So I’ll finish with a joke.

A young unmarried couple decide that they are ready for sex. The young man goes to the pharmacist to purchase some condems. He’s nervous. He asks for some help, explaining that he and his girlfriend are about to have sex for the first time. The pharmasist gives him all the information he needs. Pats him on the back and sends him on his merry way.

Later that night, he goes to his girlfriends for dinner to meet her parents. The family says Grace, and he just stares at his dinner plate. He says nothing. Finally, the girl asks… Is something wrong? You know my family is religious, I didn’t think you’d be bothered by Grace. He says no… I just didn’t know your dad was the local pharmacist.
 
Wowbagger said:
Ummm… guys? Estrogen/progestin supplements (aka “birth control pills”) are not an intrinsic evil. Like bullets, they have both illegitimate uses (contraception) and legitimate ones (treating everything from heavy periods to polycystic ovarian syndrome). Dispensing them is not cooperation in evil, and is legitimate under canon law and Catholic moral teaching.
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Um, not a guy, first of all.

But, re-read the OP. In it, the OP asked if they could dispense contraceptive prescriptions knowing the intended use. That is the question I answered.
 
faithfully said:
Interesting that your concern is the Pill… And not condoms. As they are often sold in a pharm. setting. I’ll assume you would be equally mortified by condoms. Or a sponge, or spermicide, does a pharmasist fill a diaphram Rx? That doesn’t cause the body any damage.
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Condoms, sponges, and spermicides are not prescription items. A diaphram is, and the same moral issue is present for a diaphram as the Pill.
 
Short answer: no.

I stopped dispensing them almost 20 years ago. Best professional decision I’ve ever made.

There will be those that will say that they can be used for legitimate purposes, sure…but how do as a pharmacist know? Physicians won’t tell you, that’s for sure. And it is a bit of a specious argument, TBH…90% of Rx’s for BC’s are for BC.

Even if a physician puts a diagnosis on the Rx, you can not always believe it.

I choose not to take the chance, and just don’t dispense them. There is 1 Ob in my town (also a RC) who will not prescribe them, either–which is telling, IMO.
 
Pharm4life said:
I am graduating pharmacy school this May and am searching high and low for a community (retail) pharmacy position that would not involve birth control. I’ve found only a hand full of pharmacies across the country that are Prolife so my best shot is finding an outpatient pharmacy associated with a Catholic Hospital but some of these still dispense birth control. So, if I am unable to find a job without dispensing birth control, can I dispense birth control under material compliance? If I were to start a career including dispensing birth control would I be obligated to move my family if a different position opened and at what cost/distance? Personally my conscience is leading me that I could have a positive impact in a retail setting by informing patients and coworkers about the negative effects/mechanism of action of birth control and by offering alternatives if the opportunity would arise.
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Ironically, one of your best options might be a large pharmacy. While the pharmacy might not be pro-life, it is more likely that there would be another pharmacist on duty at the same time. It is easier to exercise conscience rights in that environment.

Besides Catholic hospitals, you might want to look at the health centers of truly Catholic colleges.

Good luck. You are right, we need people like you in the field.
 
bingbang said:
lol…this post is hilarious to me. You are basically saying “you spent years of your life and 10’s of thousands of dollars to become a pharmacist…but it goes against the church…figure something else out”
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And he did all this knowing the Church’s stand against artificial birth control. If there is one thing EVERYONE knows about the Catholic Church, it’s that it’s against the Pill! So he knew this going in… why did he choose a profession where he knew this would be an issue?!
 
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