Pharmacists, are they morally able to sell birth control?

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avey

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I have heard of NFP only doctors who refuse to prescribe birth control and and pharmaceutical reps who refues to sell birth control.

I wondered what a Catholic pharmacist is required to do to be in line with Church teaching?

Is he/she able to carry birth control in their pharmacy?

What would they be culpable for if they did?

Can you explain the ethics of this situation to me?

Let’s say there are two cases.
  1. the pharmacist owns the pharmacy and can make all the major decisions.
  2. the pharmacist is not the owner and cannot make major decisions in regard to what they carry
Are they required by state law to carry all types of medication?

I have never thought about this before and am interested in feedback.

Thank you for any help you can give

Avey
 
If I were a pharmacist I would not sell contraceptives. They can lead to a tubal abortion! Don’t want that on my soul.
 
This has been a big controvery here in Illinois recently. The governor here **ordered **pharmacists in the state to fill birth control perscriptions against their own morality. If I were a pharmacist, I’d either sue or resign. What a delima-to be ordered to commit a sin. How tragic is that? 😦

Scout :tiphat:
 
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avey:
I wondered what a Catholic pharmacist is required to do to be in line with Church teaching?

Is he/she able to carry birth control in their pharmacy?

What would they be culpable for if they did?

Can you explain the ethics of this situation to me?
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Birth control, or more accurately artificial female hormones, are in and of themselves morally neutral. Selling such things, objectively, is not sinful. However, the problem comes into play when you have reason to believe that what people are going to do with those products is sinful.

The way I see it, the problem is akin to sitting on the sidewalk near a bank. Suddenly you see two men in black clothes and ski masks run in. Do you call the police to report a robbery? Or do you sit back and do nothing because you’re not sure that they’re actually robbing the bank?

It is true that some birth control pills have legitimate moral uses, such as regularizing periods. Even still, I think the pharmacist has the moral obligation to not fill prescriptions unless this is explicitly the reason for needing such medicine.
 
Unless you can ask every person wishing to fill their prescription why they are on b/c, I don’t think you should refuse. I’m on b/c for medical reasons, and I’d be highly offended, even as someone who agrees with the Catholic stance on b/c. Beer can be used to get drunk, so if you work at a grocery story that sells it, do you refuse to sell it? Or ask the buyer if they are going to get drunk?
 
And thus you see my dilemma, as a pharmacy student, which I had described in another thread. I have less than a year before graduation, and am currently in my clinical rotations. At some point I will have to work with birth control, possibly in the clinical setting and most definitely the retail. What do I do?

Then when it comes time to get a job, what do I do?

My conscience tells me that it would be as much a sin to dispense BC as it would to dispense sedatives to an individual whom I am only “pretty sure” plans to commit suicide with them.

My need to provide for my family tells me that if I adhere to this view, then I will have accrued a huge burden of school loans and 7 years of schooling for nothing, and that my family will be much worse off than if had not gone back to school.

I am very much torn in two about this.
 
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TeriGator:
Then when it comes time to get a job, what do I do?
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Rather than let a random group of people from the Internet decide your future, I would recommend talking to your priest about this.

But, since you asked, the Church teaches that material cooperation in evil (e.g., a pharmacist selling drugs which could be used immorally) is justified only when there are commensurately weighty reasons. See this Catholic Encyclopedia article for more details.
 
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MistyF:
Unless you can ask every person wishing to fill their prescription why they are on b/c, I don’t think you should refuse. I’m on b/c for medical reasons, and I’d be highly offended, even as someone who agrees with the Catholic stance on b/c. Beer can be used to get drunk, so if you work at a grocery story that sells it, do you refuse to sell it? Or ask the buyer if they are going to get drunk?
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I don’t think the question was whether or not the pharmacist would offend you.

The stakes are a bit high for something like that.
 
Sgt Sweaters:
I don’t think the question was whether or not the pharmacist would offend you.

The stakes are a bit high for something like that.
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Sgt always speaks the truth. 🙂
 
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MistyF:
Unless you can ask every person wishing to fill their prescription why they are on b/c, I don’t think you should refuse. I’m on b/c for medical reasons, and I’d be highly offended, even as someone who agrees with the Catholic stance on b/c. Beer can be used to get drunk, so if you work at a grocery story that sells it, do you refuse to sell it? Or ask the buyer if they are going to get drunk?
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Misty,

The “Prescribing Physician” will usually write on the prescription what, exactly, the medication he’s prescribing is for and why you’re taking the drug. That’s standard medical practice.

A Physician who fails to do that is doing you a disservice and may be commiting “Malpractice”.

Thanks to various “health challenges” and disabilities which will go unremarked here, I have a LOT of personal experience with the above, and I would NEVER let a doctor give me a script for a drug where I didn’t know it was for, and I wouldn’t take a drug from a pharmacist who didn’t have the same knowledge.

Misty, privacy or feeling “insulted” is the least of my concerns in that situation, DRUG INTERACTIONS and SIDE EFFECTS, OTH, are!

That’s one reason the Pharmacist needs to know the “Why” – The SIDE EFFECTS and INTERACTIONS of some drugs just aren’t worth the “WHY?”

I hope this helps with this issue.

God Bless, Michael
 
Traditional Ang:
The “Prescribing Physician” will usually write on the prescription what, exactly, the medication he’s prescribing is for and why you’re taking the drug. That’s standard medical practice.
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Is this a special rule for birth control? I’m on a number of prescription medicines, and when I originally talked to my pharmacist about them, the pharmacist was guessing about why they had been prescibed until I confirmed or explained otherwise.
 
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Scout:
This has been a big controvery here in Illinois recently. The governor here **ordered **pharmacists in the state to fill birth control perscriptions against their own morality. If I were a pharmacist, I’d either sue or resign. What a delima-to be ordered to commit a sin. How tragic is that? 😦

Scout :tiphat:
Click to expand...
Yes our governor is so off the mark on so many issues. This has got to take the cake though.
 
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Catholic2003:
Rather than let a random group of people from the Internet decide your future, I would recommend talking to your priest about this.

But, since you asked, the Church teaches that material cooperation in evil (e.g., a pharmacist selling drugs which could be used immorally) is justified only when there are commensurately weighty reasons. See this Catholic Encyclopedia article for more details.
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Thanks for the link. I’ll check it out.

My question was basically rhetorical, looking for moral support, I guess. There is also the hope that someone would know of specific hospitals and pharmacies that allow their employees a consience clause, or that do not deal with BC at all.

I would not base any life decisions on what I found on the internet. At 45, I hope I would be wiser than that. 😃
 
Dr. Colossus:
Birth control, or more accurately artificial female hormones, are in and of themselves morally neutral. Selling such things, objectively, is not sinful. However, the problem comes into play when you have reason to believe that what people are going to do with those products is sinful.

The way I see it, the problem is akin to sitting on the sidewalk near a bank. Suddenly you see two men in black clothes and ski masks run in. Do you call the police to report a robbery? Or do you sit back and do nothing because you’re not sure that they’re actually robbing the bank?

It is true that some birth control pills have legitimate moral uses, such as regularizing periods. Even still, I think the pharmacist has the moral obligation to not fill prescriptions unless this is explicitly the reason for needing such medicine.
Click to expand...
The other night I researched to find negative side effects of the bcp in order to dissuade women from using it (even for reasons other than BC). Here’s the list I compiled at cora.dashjr.org/badpill.html :
murder of preborn children
irregular menstrual bleeding or spotting
nausea
weight gain and/or water retention
headaches
dizziness
tender breasts
mood changes
blood clots (rare in women under 25 who don’t smoke)
spotty darkening of the skin
vomiting
bloating
increase in vaginal infections
greater chance of blood clots, stroke and heart attack
worsening of migraine headaches, gall bladder disease, increase in blood pressure and an extremely rare liver tumor
painful or missed periods
depression
decreased libido
abdominal pain
chest pain or shortness of breath
eye problems like flashing lights or vision disturbances
severe leg pain
risk of cervical cancer
gallbladder disease
decreased appetite
vaginitis
urinary tract infection
contact lenses may not fit due to changes in the cornea
aggravation of asthma
numbness
speech problems
breakthrough bleeding
coughing up blood
fainting
heart attack
weakness on one side of the body
yeast infections
improvements or worsening of acne
reduction in blood levels of folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin b12 and vitamin C
gallstones
jaundice or yellowing of skin and eyes
changes in carbohydrate metabolism (diabetic condition), especially if your parents or siblings have diabetes or if you become diabetic during pregnancy
inability to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases
increased risk of osteoporosis when you take Depo-Provera

Mom used to take the bcp to regulate her periods and she had headaches a lot. The pill might have also influenced her depression.

my Mother my Confidence,
Corinne
 
****We just posted a great article on the topic of pharmacists dispensing birth control on the Catholic Evidence Guild of Guam’s website. You can see the article, “Cooperation in Evil” by Fr. Francis Walsh at cegguam.org/morality/CooperatingInEvil.htm </shameless plug> Fr. Walsh is a professor of moral theology at the Redemptoris Mater seminary of the Archdiocese of Agana (Guam USA).
 
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MistyF:
I’m on b/c for medical reasons, and I’d be highly offended, even as someone who agrees with the Catholic stance on b/c.
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Maybe I am missing something here on Catholic teaching and/or your comment, but I am curious why you think there are moral justifications for taking contraceptives, i.e. medical problems. When and where did the Church okay any reason to make creation impossible via contraceptives? Help!
 
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avey:
Let’s say there are two cases.
  1. the pharmacist owns the pharmacy and can make all the major decisions.
  2. the pharmacist is not the owner and cannot make major decisions in regard to what they carry
Are they required by state law to carry all types of medication?

I have never thought about this before and am interested in feedback.

Thank you for any help you can give

Avey
Click to expand...
Avey,

If the pharmacist is the owner, then he is the one (not the government) which can decide what products to sell. You cannot be forced to stock particular drugs.

If you are not the owner, and the pill or the morning after pill are available for sale, then you would hope that your employer would let you step aside and let another employee fill the perscription.

I would not cry “discrimination” if the owner refuses this request.

You have know way of knowing for sure what the pill is intended for i.e. medical reasons or hindering conception. One would think that the perscription need not be specific as to the reason due to patient confidentiality.

If you do not plan on being the owner right away, then make it a part of your investigation when job hunting. Know the owners policy’s in regards to BC and morning after drugs.
 
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