A must read story over at the Gay Opinion Blog: Board says drugstores can refuse medication

There’s a must read story over at the Gay Opinion Blog – it is titled Board says drugstores can refuse medication.

According to the Seattle P-I, the Washington State Pharmacy Board endorsed a proposal that would allow pharmacists to decline to sell morning-after emergency contraceptive medication but gave “pharmacists the right to decline prescriptions that are in conflict with their beliefs.”

“Pharmacists should have the right to decline work that conflicts with their beliefs as long as they respect the patient, Rod Shafer, executive director of the Washington State Pharmacy Association, said earlier this year,” the P-I story continues. "We are not dispensing machines," Shafer said. "We are professionals who have as many rights as anybody else."

How long will it be before some self-righteous Pharmacists decide not to fill prescriptions for AIDS/HIV medicines? After all the Pharmacist may not approve of the sexual orientation of the customer, and the Pharmacist has “as many rights as anybody else.”

How long will it be before some self-righteous Pharmacists decide not to fill meds that treat STDs? After all the Pharmacist may not approve of the sexual activity of the customer, and the Pharmacist has “as many rights as anybody else.”

How long will it be before some self-righteous Pharmacists decide not to fill birth control prescriptions? After all the Pharmacist may not approve of helping a customer commit a mortal sin, and the Pharmacist has “as many rights as anybody else.”

After all, how can a good Roman Catholic Pharmacist ever dispense birth control pills?

Where do you draw the line?

Not at a place that allows health care professionals to refuse treatment or medication based on their own religious “rights.” The patient – the customer – has an absoluter right to receive their medicine without being judged or intimidated or made to feel less than human.

You think your neighborly Pharmacist would never make anyone feel like they are being judged or intimidated or less than human?

When I was young, you had to ask the Pharmacist if you wanted to get a condom. And the Pharmacist – if he thought you were to young to be having sex – he would refuse to sell you one. Or he’d make sure you knew he thought you were “loose woman.” Men, like him, were allowed to “sew their wild oats.”

The Washington State Pharmacy Board is wrong to pay more concern to the “morals” of Pharmacists instead of worrying about the needs of those who need medicine. They have opened Pandora’s Box in a way that will allow some Pharmacists to exercise their egos by judging some customers as being unworthy of care.

Perhaps it is just as well the Hippocratic Oath only applies to Physicians.

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You can let the Washington State Pharmacy Board know how you feel about their action by sending a polite e-mail to them  at hpqa.csc@doh.wa.gov.