by Megan O'Brian

Created on: November 22, 2009   Last Updated: February 28, 2010

While I know that pharmacists cannot be forced to dispense the morning after pill if it violates their religious beliefs, no pharmacist has the right to be judge and jury over any customer and deny them the medication ordered by their physician.

Allowing a pharmacist to override a physicians order and deny the morning after pill to a customer would set a precedent that could have deadly consequences.

What if a pharmacist's religion doesn't believe in prolonging the life of the elderly? Would that pharmacist then have the right to refuse to dispense digitalis, a drug used to control potentially fatal cardiac arrythmias, coumadin ( a blood thinning drug that can prevent further blood clots after someone has had a stroke or a DVT ) or any drug that when taken can stave off death for a period of time and allow the elderly patient to live a bit longer in relatively good health?

What about the patients who rely on kidney dialysis and who depend on the medications used in their dialysis solution and the drugs they take by mouth to prolong their life and allow them to live fairly well and even continue to work - should a pharmacist's religious beliefs be considered if he refuses to dispense those drugs because it violates his religious beliefs?

The answer of course is a resounding "NO", so why should we respect a pharmacists religious beliefs when it comes to the "morning after" pill? Where do we draw the line when it comes to the religious beliefs of pharmacists and the right of every individual to get any medication ordered by their physician? How can we avoid this situation in the first place?

Start with putting rules and regulations in place in the schools where pharmacists are trained. A student whose religious beliefs clash with the dispensing of certain medications should be required to make their concerns known to the instructor who will then make a notation on their records pertaining to his or her religious beliefs.

Along with that, a statement which lists the specific drugs that will not be dispensed by this pharmacist because of those religious beliefs. This information would be on the pharmacists personal record and available to be seen by every potential employer.

A pharmacy could hire those pharmacists who have religious issues if it employs two or more pharmacists and one pharmacist has no problem dispensing any drug. A pharmacy also has the right to refuse to employ anyone who has strong religious beliefs about specific drugs. No pharmacy wants or should be forced to have problems because of a pharmacists religious beliefs.

The bottom line is that if a pharmacist is unwilling to do his job for whatever reason, he should be relieved of his job - no questions asked. Will that happen? It's highly doubtful as America is falling over itself to be "politically correct" - people are too weak and fearful of being accused of discrimination if they speak the truth.

It's unfortunate, but America has been weakened by being "politically correct" and if no one speaks up and speaks the truth, demanding to be heard , we will all suffer the consequences.

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