Texas pharmacist refuses pill for rape victim

[GePap]

Look, 5 or 6 people have alreayd made that point patently clear- if he hasn;t accepted it up to now, what is the logic that further battering on the door will open it?

[MrFun]

Cause we have nothing else to do at the moment?

[Drogue]

Question and answer

[GePap]

Originally posted by MrFun
Cause we have nothing else to do at the moment?

Work perhaps? looking for work? Playing games? Whoopie? nothing else at ALL?

MrFun*

*not hainvg fun right now

[Japher]

Work? Oh, yeah!

MrFun*

*GePap's fetish of the moment

[MrFun]

Originally posted by GePap


Work perhaps? looking for work? Playing games? Whoopie? nothing else at ALL?

MrFun*

*not hainvg fun right now

Well, I am at work in my internship right now, but we only got one patron request for genealogy documents so far, and I got that done.

I suppose I COULD do busy-body work by entering more data from a hard-copy county jail registry into the electronic database, but I'm saving that boredom for after my lunch break.

[Gibsie]

I wonder, if a woman Ben is close to came to him after being badly beaten and raped, talked out the situation with him confidentiality, then decided despite Ben's best advice, that she wanted to get the morning-after-pill, would he drive her to the doctor's and pharmacy, or would he basically tell her to get lost?

It'd be nice if you could answer that Ben Kenobi, I'd just like to know if you're really human after all.

[Boris Godunov]

I don't think the thread was established with the intention of debating such a moral stance, but whether or not such a stance should be allowed in the course of a pharmacist's work.

[Gibsie]

Oh geez, you mean I'm going out of the thread's remit? I'm questioning something that hasn't been debated about for 80 posts already? Dear oh dear, this is clearly unacceptable!

[Dis]

Originally posted by MrFun


I'm going to take this as a tasteless joke, rather than it being your true sentiments.

good idea . tasteless jokes are my specialty.

[curtsibling]

This pharmacist is total cretin, and should have his licence revoked ASAP.

He isn't employed to moralise, he is employed to provide medication.

Another example of human flawed religionism and it's arrogance.

[Ancyrean]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
That's not the issue here. The issue is that his religion strictly prohibits him from prescribing the morning after pill because they teach that human life begins at conception.

Now, you've admitted that the pill prevents implantation, therefore, by scientific evidence, dispensing the pill violates his beliefs.

It's not just the employee's speculation. It's his faith and his beliefs. Would you consider all of his faith to be nothing more than speculation?

I fail to see why the store cannot accomodate his beliefs, considering that he is a pharmacist, and his job is not unduly affected by the refusal to dispense the morning after pill.

So all Catholics, who up until now have practiced as pharmacists, should quit their job?

I think a society should be based on some predictibility, such as, if I go to a grocery and I have the money, I can buy apples, or, if I have a prescription from a doctor and I go to a pharmacy I can get the medication. That simple. I should have the luxury of not trying to second-guess any pharmacist's religious beliefs.

Law should not sanction the inclusion of religious beliefs, hence religion, into any such transaction. If we allow the pharmacist to be the judge of anybody's life ("Rape? Dunno. I think life starts at conception, I think she'll a take a life if I sell this pill, ergo I shouldnt give it to her"), what's next? If the next pharmacist is a Hindu, should he be allowed to not give me drugs with chemicals derived from say, a cow?

I respect people's devotion to or rejection of religion, but I also think turning basic human interaction into self-righteous trials of conscience is horribly wrong. The conundrum here is, no strong believer would concede that his ultimate truths in fact can be subjective, and the point won't get through, for I'm inherently wrong because I don't agree with the idea that I'll be taking a life if I sell that pill. Hence, he'll demand exception and rights to be able to make that exception.

[Sikander]

I discussed this briefly with my girlfriend, who happens to be both a pharmacist and an attorney.

Obviously contrary to Gepap's opinion this man broke no laws in refusing to sell this woman this prescription.

A more interesting question is whether he is violating his professional standards (as decided by the state licensing authority), and again in all probability he is clear there as well. Apparently there are numerous cases of pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control etc., and as this issue in the vast majority of cases has no life-threatening aspect (ie one can always go somewhere else and buy the product), he again appears to be in the clear. Had he been a hospital (rather than retail) pharmacist and refused to fill a prescription the lack of which would potentially have a negative impact on the health of the patient, then he would be in some potential trouble in regard to his license.

Where he is in trouble immediately is with his employer, which has a reasonable expectation that its employees will take any lawful and ethical opportunity to sell the products it carries. His beef is with his employer, and he should have had the guts to tell them upfront that he was going to refuse to fill prescriptions of whatever type. Instead he decided to take an opportunity to make some headlines. I'd fire his ass in a heartbeat.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
So all Catholics, who up until now have practiced as pharmacists, should quit their job?

And should all Pacifists, who joined the army and refuse to go to war, quit their job as well? Damn, what a blatant violation of their civil rights! A Pacifist has the same right to serve in the army as any other person and shouldn't be forced to go to war against his belief.

Seriously, that guy has to be fired instantly and without any compensation. Additionally, he should be blacklisted, as should all Catholic fundamentalists who deny medical help to people in need. And a few slaps in his face by that woman would've been justified as well.

[Verto]

Seems like the Catholics have too much time on their hands. Maybe a second Inquisition would keep them occupied?

[/badtroll]