Citing beliefs, pharmacist drops birth control

[peregrinus_WA]

It is really amazing how some are tying to force pharmacists to become accessories to murder. Yes, that is artificial birth control is. It is murder. Those who advocate ABC are also guilty of being accessories to murder.

 

[jediliz]

if the BCP is used for a long period of time, it can mess with a woman’s fertility AND it can also increase risk for cancer (Breast Cancer). The pill has a backup mechanism designed to starve a newly conceived baby if a child is conceived while a woman is on the pill.

I applaud any pharmacist that refuses to give into NARAL and Planned Parenthood’s bullying tactics.

If you have a privately owned pharmacy, you have a right to NOT stock certain items, including any contraceptives.

 

[aaronlgates]

…and the MD has technically a right not to prescribe a blood transfusion, but it would violate the spirit of the Hippocratic oath.

This pharmacist is in the wrong line of work and I hope that he gets an opportunity to leave it.

You are in the wrong religion, and it appears that you have already left it…

Here’s a link to the Code of Ethics for Pharmacists:

uspharmd.com/pharmacist/Pharmacist_Oath_and_Code_of_Ethics.html

Here are quotes from that Code which are relevant to this problem:

I am a Doctor of Pharmacy and I have never seen this code… and I have never heard of uspharmd whatever site that is… but it appears to have been put together by someone who’s first language was definitely not english.

I AM, however, familiar with the hippocratic oath, which I DID take and it states:

“I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

I hate it when people speak out of their rear ends.

 

[Digitonomy]

His private personal religion has nothing to do with whether he decides to fill the prescriptions of the townpeople are prescribing for their patients. HE did not prescribe the medications; the townspeople’s health care providers did.

In principle I don’t think the US Constitution prohibits states from requiring its licensed healthcare field professionals to comply with this or that regulation. However, it is a political matter for the state to determine how far to take that. Unless a state Board of Pharmacy explicitly requires pharmacists or pharmacies to do as you suggest, nohome’s approach is clearly correct.

 

[aaronlgates]

If the pharmacist were working for a store, I’d agree with you, they should just shut up and do what they are paid to do. In this case, the pharmacist owns the store. They have a right to run it how they see fit.

Nohome

It really makes no difference where the pharmacist is working… he or she is either a professional entitled to this action or not. In the case of a store owner, it makes things a little easier in SOME instances to refuse to dispense things like birth control and abortifacients.

In the case of the pharmacist working for, say, Walgreens, it is proper to let the employer know in the interview that you are a pharmacist of conscience. This is what I do, and I am very firm about it. I still, however, dispense birth control, but I use it as an opportunity to educate the patients about the abortive mechanism that ‘contraceptives’ have.

STILL, there is nothing that can force a nurse or physician or any other health care professional to take part in abortive procedures. This right of conscience is protected almost universally. Likewise, pharmacists can and do refuse to dispense medications on a semi-regular basis… sometimes it has nothing to do with moral objections… sometimes it is because the pharmacist knows better what the patient is taking and cannot in good conscience dispense medications that a physician orders… this protects the physician as well as the patient.

A pharmacist is not a vending machine. If we were, we wouldn’t to to school for 10 years and be paid 160k to slap a label on a bottle and fill it with whatever for whoever. Just because retail pharmacy is reduced to just about that, it does not relieve the pharmacist of his or her duty to make professional and even ethical judgement calls on medications written for.

 

[frleo]

Update

                                                                                        Friday, March 07, 2008
                                                                                         Broadus, MT

Greetings >From Broadus,

I just got back home last night (Thursday) from my trip to Helena. As many of you know, I was asked to go before a MT Board of Pharmacy review panel (on Wed. 3/5) regarding 11 complaints filed with the Board stating that “it is ridiculous” that I, as a pharmacist, would not carry and dispense oral contraceptives and emergency contraceptives and they all asked that I be cited for “Unprofessional Conduct”. Although both products can act to prevent ovulation, both products also have post-conceptive effects that would prevent implantation if fertilization were to take place…so that just in and of itself is a moral issue regardless of a person’s faith affiliation. Many of you have emailed and written me and I apologize to answer in a general fashion but wanted to let you know how things turned out.

Much to my relief they turned out very well. None of the complainants made themselves available either in person or via phone for these proceedings. The Board was clear in that they only wanted to discuss the complaints in how they relate to current pharmacy regulation. The Board thought that I had gone above and beyond in preventing trouble with my decision as I posted in our local paper over 2 months in advance of the policy change, I had written each patient, and the fact that those who want that type of service can still attain it though our county health nurse who administers the government program called Family Planning (not to mention availability via mail). The Board saw fit to dismiss all of the complaints against me and furthermore logged them as prejudiced. They went on to say that they do not feel that it is the profession’s best interest to mandate product availability and that they intend to leave the matter of “professional conscience” or product availability (like Plan B) to the MT Legislature.

In conversation with the MT Board of Pharmacy and the MT Pharmacy Association they fully expect that the legislators will be called to consider the issues of “conscience” and the question of mandating product availability to come up in the 2009 legislative session. So please keep those topics in mind if you happen to write or contact your own legislators. Even though I would have liked to see the Board adopt a protective conscience clause, I was greatly relieved at the hearing results. Thank you all for your interest, your correspondence and your prayers. Not only were they a great comfort to me, I can only conclude that they were very fruitful.

Humbly,
Yours In Christ,
John L. Lane RPh
Broadus, MT

 

[Digitonomy]

STILL, there is nothing that can force a nurse or physician or any other health care professional to take part in abortive procedures. This right of conscience is protected almost universally. Likewise, pharmacists can and do refuse to dispense medications on a semi-regular basis… sometimes it has nothing to do with moral objections

If you have an objective professional reason (one that a panel of atheist or Shinto pharmacists would agree is reasonable) you should be on pretty solid ground regardless. If your reason is a subjective one on the basis of your own religion, your case is not quite as strong. An employer could probably fire you in most states, or not hire you as the case may be.

Also, a licensing board is not required to grant licenses to practice pharmacy or any other health profession to anyone and everyone. An adherent of Christian Science, for example, could reasonably be disciplined or stripped of his license to practice medicine for following some of his religious beliefs in his practice. That said, there has not been the political will in most states to push the issue by requiring pharmacies to carry or pharmacists to dispense birth control or abortifacients of whatever type, a fact that sits well with most of us here.

 

[st_lucy]

…and the MD has technically a right not to prescribe a blood transfusion, but it would violate the spirit of the Hippocratic oath.

Isn’t it funny that you have to bring this up to try to prove your case. Doesn’t this very oath state that the Pharmacist will not give any drug that can harm or kill the patient. It seem like taking the Plan B would defiantly harm at the very least one of the patients if not both and the same can be said about ABCs.

 

[frleo]

The Billings Gazette has an article on last week’s proceedings

 

[aaronlgates]

If your reason is a subjective one on the basis of your own religion, your case is not quite as strong. An employer could probably fire you in most states, or not hire you as the case may be.

Because protecting life is not a ‘subjective’ or frivolous aim that favors any one religion, the right of conscience as it relates to abortifacient procedures and chemicals is thankfully protected almost universally…though under attack lately.

I can be of a wide range of religious backgrounds and still value life. In fact, if I did not value life I would be considered in the minority. The problem we have in this world(and this has not changed since the fall) is that there is one who wills to kill and harm the image of God as much as he can. Likewise, there are many of his disciples who would defend this practice… sadly a few in this thread seem to fall into this category.

Let’s not be deceived about what’s REALLY GOING ON in the world around us.

 

[peregrinus_WA]

Let’s not be deceived about what’s REALLY GOING ON in the world around us.

Some just do not want recognize what is happening. Sodom and Gomorrah was tame compared to where we are headed.

 

[edwest2]

Rejoice that you know the truth. And what did Jesus tell His disciples about troubles to come? These things must be avoided because they are categorically evil.

In the United States, eveything is tolerated except Christianity. Yet, take heart, there are those who still follow Jesus.

God bless,
Ed

 

[Nohome]

In the United States, eveything is tolerated except Christianity. Yet, take heart, there are those who still follow Jesus.

I’m curious, what countries have you visited to make you think such a thing about the United States? Seriously, where is Christianity better “tolerated” than in the United States.

Nohome

 

[amal95]

Because protecting life is not a ‘subjective’ or frivolous aim that favors any one religion, the right of conscience as it relates to abortifacient procedures and chemicals is thankfully protected almost universally…though under attack lately.

I can be of a wide range of religious backgrounds and still value life. In fact, if I did not value life I would be considered in the minority. The problem we have in this world(and this has not changed since the fall) is that there is one who wills to kill and harm the image of God as much as he can. Likewise, there are many of his disciples who would defend this practice… sadly a few in this thread seem to fall into this category.

Let’s not be deceived about what’s REALLY GOING ON in the world around us.

^^great post
Right, it is an appeal to conscience, not favoring nay particular religion, as soem posters are implying. Sadly the universal value of life and to protect life is very much under attack nowadays, and people who are defending these attacks on life are helping the culture of death in this spiritual battle.

PS prayers for the military pharmacist and other pharmacists in this thread.

 

[aaronlgates]

I will keep you in my prayers

Your prayers were effective Father.

It was only a matter of months after acceptance into the Church that I removed all birth control from the military pharmacy I ran and refused to handle or acquire it from that point further. God protected me and still does!

 

[aaronlgates]

Captain, what advice would you give a Catholic who was considering going to pharmacy school? I know most of the larger drug store chains do not permit their pharmacists to refuse to dispense prescriptions, or require them to refer the patient to another pharmacist who WILL dispense the medication (which… doesn’t really solve the problem). God bless you in your service to our country and in your entry into Holy Mother Church!

Chris,

What did you decide? Did you decide pharmacy was for you?