Morality and RX Drugs

[Holly3278]

Personally, if I was a pharmacist (which I never will be since I don’t have the chemistry smarts to become one) I would go ahead and prescribe the drugs so long as I had no explicit knowledge that they were going to be used for immoral purposes. I mean, let’s say that condoms were only available by prescription and someone came up to me wanting to get a prescription filled for a pack of condoms. Well, I would refuse to fill that prescription because there really are no moral means for using condoms unless you are going to use them to protect the end of your gun from getting wet or something and there are other means to do that such as putting a plastic bag over the end or something. But if I did not have the explicit knowledge that a birth control pill or Viagra or whatever was going to be used for immoral purposes, I would prescribe it because those medications do have valid therapeutic uses and can be used form oral purposes.

 

[StJudePray4Me]

I think the only real solution for a Pharmacist who refuses to dispense medications which are not in line with Church teachings are to either:

1. Seek employment at a Catholic Hospital or
2. Have their own business, and clearly post the policy “We do not dispense birth control of any kind, Plan B, or fertility drugs of any kind, etc.”

If the owner of the pharmacy doesn’t believe in Viagra, there is no rule that they have to carry that either.

That way, you are putting the moral decision on the patient, not you. You can have a clear conscience without delving into the personal medical details of your customers.

If you can not afford to have a pharmacy of your own, I suppose you could tell the owner that you won’t dispense those things, and let the customers know. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait for the next pharmacist on duty to fill that. It is against my personal religious beliefs.”

I don’t think you can compare other drugs like painkillers or mental heath drugs to birth control. It’s apples and oranges to me. The misuse of Rx drugs is only of concern to a pharmacist if he or she believes the patient or doctor has broken the law.

I understand how it feels like judgment. I struggle to understand those who won’t sell the pill to people who use it for alternate things, like hormones. That’s how I ended up on this thread. I know too many people who use it for hormones, and not BC, so I think I would sell it to people, myself. I’ve always figured if they won’t sell the pill to people, then there are lots of drugs, like Methotrexate (used for cancer and used for abortions), that they would refuse to sell as well, but no one ever mentions it. They only mention the pill, ever, or maybe plan B.

It is possible that some people feel it is their business to correct females, but not to correct males. You may have caught a whiff of that in action on a thread.

I think it’s not really a man-woman thing if you include the sales of condoms. Also, the refusal to sell the pill would also apply to a man who has come to fill or pick up his wife or partners Rx (or, sadly as I have personally experienced, his daughter’s!)

As to the off-label use of BC pills, I think you’re better off just having a blanket policy to refuse to fill those Rx’s and let the person go elsewhere, rather than trying to delve into someone’s personal health information. If you have a clear policy, your faithful Catholics who are using the pill for licit reasons can get their pills through mail order or at another pharmacy. Hopefully, they would respect your beliefs and not make a big deal of it. If not, than you risk losing the customer, but isn’t that OK? To retain your own principles and risk the disapproval of those who disagree?

 

[Listener]

An interesting point is being raised here. It’s not only drugs like Viagra that might be used by men who aren’t married. There are many drugs that absolutely should not be taken by a woman who is pregnant or is planning to become pregnant.

Statin drugs are one example. So if a young woman with a wedding ring comes in with a prescription for Statin drugs because she has high cholesterol, should the Catholic pharmacist refuse to fill it because she might get pregnant? I’m sure a lot of these drugs could be much more harmful to an unborn baby than birth control pills would be.

I think that if a young woman (who happens to be a virgin) comes in with a prescription for birth control pills to control severe pain and dangerous bleeding, it would be arrogant on the part of the pharmacist to refuse to fill it.

Does the doctor ever write down the reason that the patient needs the prescription? I honestly don’t know.