Pope: Don't Dispense Drugs For Immoral Use
Urges Catholic Pharmacists To Refuse Prescriptions Used For Abortion, Euthanasia
-
Photo
(CBS/AP)
-
Interactive
Abortion Debate
It's one of the most hotly debated political and social issues in America. Review a history of that debate since the historic Roe v. Wade decision.
In a speech to participants at the 25th International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists, Benedict said that conscientious objection was a right that must be recognized by the pharmaceutical profession.
Such objector status, he said, would "enable them not to collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia."
In his speech, the pope also said that pharmacists have an educational role toward patients so that drugs are used in a morally and ethically correct way.
"We cannot anesthetize consciences as regards, for example, the effect of certain molecules that have the goal of preventing the implantation of the embryo or shortening a person's life," he said.
Emergency contraception pills, which can be taken up to 72 hours after unprotected sex, work by preventing ovulation or by preventing the embryo from being implanted into the womb.
The pope said pharmacists should raise people's awareness so that "all human beings are protected from conception to natural death, and so that medicines truly play a therapeutic role."
The issue has been debated extensively in the United States.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich introduced the rule more than two years ago requiring pharmacists to fill all prescriptions. Pharmacists challenged the rule, and a legal settlement earlier this month allowed pharmacists who object to dispensing emergency birth control to step aside while someone else fills the prescription.
In Washington state, pharmacists have filed a federal lawsuit over a regulation requiring them to sell emergency contraception, saying it violates their civil rights by forcing them into choosing between "their livelihoods and their deeply held religious and moral beliefs."
A few states in the U.S. have passed laws that specifically allow pharmacists or pharmacies to refuse to provide health care due to religious or moral objections, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights think tank based in New York.
Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota have legislation that explicitly permits pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraceptives, according to the Institute, and Florida, Illinois, Maine and Tennessee have broadly worded legislation that may apply to pharmacists.
In California, on the other hand, pharmacists are required to fill all valid prescriptions and can only refuse with employer approval and if the customer can still access the prescription in a timely manner.
In Britain, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has a code of ethics allowing pharmacists who have religious objections to refuse dispensing certain drugs, such as emergency contraception. But their objection must be stated to their employer before they start working, and they must refer patients to other pharmacists who can provide the requested drugs.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



- 1
- 2
- next
See all 66 CommentsSome priorities the right wing hypocrite fascists around the world have for humanity. A hoe is a hoe, ya know, ya know.
My father owned a family pharmacy. He would not allow his Pharmacists to decide which Rx''s to fill. All were filled!
What if that Viagra is so someone can molest their niece?
Let''s get real. Pharmacists should do the job they are paid to do. If they have moral problems with certain prescriptions, then they''re in the wrong business.
Oh wait--they''re called Protestants!
Next thing you know, they''ll refuse to fill prescriptions for Viagra, and no Prozac if you go to a pharmacy where the pharmacist is a scientologist, and no medicines made with an non-kosher methods if your pharmacist is Jewish or Muslim, and so on and so forth.
Religions should stick to Sunday services, mind their own lives, and stay out of everyone else%u2019s pants.
Going one better, priests should also stick to keeping their own pants on and leave little kids alone. Silence is acceptance, acceptance is condoning. They have a vow of celibacy, playing with the under-aged, whether same gender or opposite is not a valid exception to that rule.
I would never go to a pharmacy where any employee exercised moral judgment to refuse to fill a prescription whether for me or anyone. If a pharmacist has moral qualms about his/her profession then there are other jobs.
Just more evidence of the madness and ignorance perpetuated by religion anf those who believe.
and can someone explain all the Catholic fascination with ***?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by kansas1946 at 06:34 PM : Oct 29, 2007
Of course what the pope throws out can affect your life regardless if you are catholic or not. For example: Scenario is that you live in a very small town and the only hospital you have access to is a Catholic hosptial. You get terminal cancer. One day the pope decides that morphine and all pain killers need to be with held from terminally ill cancer patients because it might hasten their death. Your choices now are to die a painful death or move your pain wracked dying body to another town that has a non catholic hospital.
Isn''t too bad that joke is still as good today as it was 40 some years ago.
And they could have told the joke during the holocaust and the second world war too.
Why does this Satan-worshipper keep opening his mouth?
***********************
Or, a 38 caliber upside my head. Pope or no Pope!
Just kidding, gramma, sort of. I was really talking about the media attention to every time the Pope says something. I could see that in the Catholic Register, or the Catholic Gazette. But I am not sure why CBS, or MSNBC, goes on about it.
**************************************
Acutally, just the oppposit is true in this context. We are fighting everyday to improve birth control, try to convince young people to use it, developing things like the "morning after" pill that prevents conception, and drugs like RU486 that can be used very early in the process so babies don''t get "sliced and diced." as you put it.
Of course, we have to fight every inch of the way for those things because this really isn''t about abortion, it is about control of our sexuality.
Posted by ixoye_02 at 07:10 PM : Oct 29, 2007
You mean that a person who had to leave work prior to work on friday before sun down as Orthodox Jews do or work on Saturday should be forced into fields that don''t have working hours. My hero Sandy Koufax a Jew refused to pitch on Yom Kippur a high holy. He gained respect for that not attacks as religious belief and observance gains now.
Yikes...I can just feel the comments I''ll get from some catholics about this post. Whatever.....
No wonder this religion is dying, eh?
Anyone who listens to this fruitcake deserves to lose their pharmacist''s license.
Then we will only have pharmacists who will obey the law rather than try to enforce their own views on the general public.
Do any of you recognize a bookstore or car dealership owners right to sell what they WANT to sell? Do you consider it a denial of 1st Amendment rights if a book dealer doesn''t sell a book that gives a certain viewpoint? Do you believe that a sporting good''s salesman that doesn''t sell guns is denying a person their right to bear arms?
If not, you are not being consistent if you argue that a pharmacist choosing not to fill a prescription is denying anyone a so-called right.
If I want a certain book, I''ll find a bookstore that sells it. If I want a gun, I''ll find a store that sells it. If I want a hybrid car or a gas guzzler, I''ll find a dealership that sells them. If you want certain medicine........FIND A PHARMACY THAT SELLS IT!
Enjoy the free-market, folks!
posted by alanrobisch2
There is a difference between an office worker or even a baseball player vs. someone who is responsible for affecting the health of a person. If an office worker misses a day of work, it''s not the end of the world. But if a pharmacist or a doctor does not strictly follow the rules of medicine and lets faith dictate the way they do their job, lives could be harmed or even lost.
Sad, because millions who take comfort in the concept of religion will lose their spiritual "sanctuary".
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 66 Comments