Pharmacists have job to do
Toolbox
Published: April 25, 2005
Several recent news stories have documented refusals by pharmacists to fill prescriptions on the grounds of "conscience." The most frequently rejected prescriptions are for the "morning after" pill, but some pharmacists have refused to dispense ordinary birth control pills to single women. A few have even rejected prescriptions for HIV/AIDS medications, claiming that the patients have brought their infections on themselves through an "immoral lifestyle."
Some state legislatures have enacted or are debating dangerously irresponsible laws granting pharmacies and pharmacists so-called "freedom of conscience," i.e. letting these licensed dispensers of controlled substances deny them to customers — in defiance of doctors' instructions — on the basis of arbitrary personal beliefs. Wal-Mart has confirmed, in response to a recent petition, that it does not sell the morning-after pill and that it allows its pharmacists to refuse "on conscience" to fill prescriptions for certain drugs.
Pharmacists claiming the right to withhold medications on the basis of "conscience" liken themselves to doctors and nurses refusing to perform or assist at abortions. We think pharmacists are more like Vermont town clerks, who are required to issue civil union licenses regardless of their own religious convictions, or to justices of the peace, who may not refuse to perform civil unions if they regularly perform weddings (some JP's do not.)
Knowledgeable, well-trained pharmacists are an integral part of our health care system; but their special competence is technical and scientific, not religious or moral. Under what system of priorities can they be allowed to overrule doctors' medical judgments and block patients' access to legal medications? (Depending on the locality and a patient's situation, referral to another pharmacy constitutes delay and harassment at best and outright denial at worst.)
Pharmacists and pharmacies are granted nearly exclusive rights to perform an essential public service — not to legislate public morality. Their licenses should entail strictly enforced obligations. Refusal to stock or dispense commonly prescribed drugs should lead to heavy fines and loss of license. A pharmacist who believes his "conscience" takes precedence over doctors' instructions and patients' rights should find another profession.
MICHAEL and
JUDY OLINICK
Middlebury
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