Not In My Pharmacy

A pharmacist refuses to fill a prescription on the grounds that it violates his beliefs. Specifically, the belief that all life is sacred and shouldn't be messed with, etc, etc.

I don't understand what belief contraceptives violate. I understand the fundamental argument against abortion (the embryo is a human being, with a full set of DNA and so on) but what exactly is the case against contraceptives? If anything, you would think people against abortion (as I suspect the pharmacist is also against, usually these two beliefs go hand in hand) would applaud birth control since it prevents what you have to kill later on if you had never used it in the first place. It's preventing the formation of the embryo later on in development.

If we're going to go and say we should never prevent anything that deviates from nature's course, then why all the hullabaloo over people on life support? Under the same idea, more or less, we should let nature (or God or whomever) just take its course. After all, without human intervention, they would have died. In fact, let's eliminate all medical care. Messing with nature is bad bad bad.

Okay, now let's dispense the weasel words. This guy says it violates his religious beliefs. Okay, so this girl doesn't have her contraceptives from you. She can't transfer and fill it at another pharmacy because Pharmacy Genius decides to freeze her prescription (which is more a bother, doctor can always write another one if need be). So, she goes and gets pregnant and then likely has either A) an abortion which can be partly blamed on the Pharmacist or B) a baby which this college girl and her family will have to raise.

Why do these religious nuts think it's so noble to bring a life into this world of ours, when this life is likely going to live through hell? And why do they shoot themselves in the foot on these matters? As I said above, he refuses the contraceptives so in the worst case scenario she goes and commits a worse evil in the eyes of God. Way to go, real pillar of Jesus there. Don't tell me that abortion can never lead to good and might kill a future Einstein, because on the other hand it could easily also mean a future Stalin or Genghis Khan or Caligula would have been aborted and saved the world some trouble. It's a nasty argument.

I recall seeing on television a study that found solely preaching abstinence, as my Church advocates, doesn't work. In fact, it lead to higher rates of teen pregnancies than in those schools in which contraceptives were explained in detail. I'm sure the response will be that the children under study weren't religious enough or were tainted by wicked evil society.

A duty of the pharmacist is, like any other professional, to carry out their duty to the best of their ability. You just can't stall someone's prescription on the basis of your beliefs. At the least, transfer the damn script somewhere else. Don't deny the patient care. Imagine, if you will, your local dentist refuses to give you Novocaine while he pulls your teeth because he doesn't believe in it, or your mechanic doesn't want to repair your SUV because he only does fuel efficient cars.

They've sanctioned the guy, which I think is the right decision. A pharmacist is there to dispense the medicine, to make sure the dosage is correct, that there is no potential complications or reactions, among other things. A pharmacist is not there to impose upon someone their beliefs and values onto their patient. What a load of crock.