Comments on: Illinois’ morning after pill

By: matt8152

matt8152 — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:41:59 +0000

When you get your prescription filled, do you want it filled by a pharmacist with integrity? When you are too sick to care for yourself and you have to be admitted to the hospital, do you want your physician—the one who writes your orders, makes your diagnosis, does your surgery or performs your procedure—to be a physician with integrity? Of course you do. Everyone does.

That, to me, is the real question regarding rights of conscience. It is wrong to ask a pro-life pharmacist to destroy his or her integrity by prescribing an abortifacient. It is wrong to ask a pro-life OB/GYN physician to destroy his or her integrity by asking that doctor to perform an abortion, refer for abortion or otherwise aid a woman in obtaining an abortion.

Secretary Leavitt, head of Health and Human Services, recently signed a regulation requiring pharmacies, healthcare systems, hospitals and clinics to honor the rights of conscience of pro-life doctors, pharmacists and other health care providers. Based on that order, I suspect the Illinois law will be challenged and struck down.

Unfortunately, with Senator Obama becoming president and a pro-abortion majority in the House and the Senate, our rights of conscience will be in serious jeopardy. Those of us in this battle covet your prayers.

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By: musing

musing — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:23:53 +0000

opinionated teen,

and if the patient was physically incapable of undergoing a pregnancy?

When one says “no way” one is almost always wrong (do check the two different syntaxes ).

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By: opinionated teen

opinionated teen — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:30:28 +0000

I see no way a Plan B pill would “sustain the patient’s health”, except in special cases, in which said patient would be better suited going to the hospital than their pharmacy.

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By: musing

musing — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:41:42 +0000

Cheryl D post 132,

well actually i most cases they will order it for you.

but there is, as I have noted in the Massachusetts regulations, that they will stock those items typically considered necessary. Plan B has been discussed in regulatoryu proceedings regularly as one of these items.

Amazing if you look at my last sentence in my earlier post and your last post, we perhaps agree on something.

However, it is the doctor who is responsible for determining the drugs used to sustain the patients health, not the pharmacist.

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By: Cheryl D.

Cheryl D. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:58:45 +0000

Also, if the pharmacy doesn’t carry what the doctor prescribes, the customer needs to go somewhere else. The pharmacist is not the physician’s “assistant” but an independent professional who probably knows more about medications than even the doctor does.

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By: musing

musing — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:48:21 +0000

SteveG post 130,

I think you are correct:

“The duty of the pharmacist is to dispense those medications a doctor prescribes.”

and this appears to be how the laws are wrriten.

The pharmacists is, however, supposed to check that something is not amiss with the presecription, check for unintended drug interactions, and explain side effects to the customer: the pharmacist is not a pure automoton.

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By: SteveG

SteveG — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:29:13 +0000

The duty of the pharmacist is to dispense those medications a doctor prescribes. If you can’t do that in good conscience, find another line of work.

If you went to a steakhouse and your waiter said you can’t have a steak because the chef on duty has a moral conviction against eating meat and refuses to cook it, you would no doubt find that pretty absurd, yes?

But you want a pharmacist to have the right to countermand a doctor’s orders? It’s all well and good to say the patient can go to another pharmacy, but (1) in many smaller locales there are not that many options and (2) why should she have to?

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By: opinionated teen

opinionated teen — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:21:30 +0000

We’re off to a good start, Musing. Thank you.

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By: Cheryl D.

Cheryl D. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:30:00 +0000

OT, most people here eventually find it not worthwhile to ask Musing to communicate the way “normal” people would. I don’t think he/she is more intelligent than the average person, or a better debater, just a confusing one, and one who’ll debate definitions of terms endlessly. So if you get frustrated and decide you are wasting your time, that’s OK. (I nearly always skip his posts, which saves a lot of time. I really usually only see what he says when someone else quotes him, and then sometimes I get involved in the discussion a little bit, if I find something with which to respond.) In other words, don’t sink a lot of time and effort in here, and let stuff like his calling you “intellectually lazy” roll off your back.

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By: musing

musing — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:58:28 +0000

opinionated teen,

all right I will try.

Lets see how it works.

You are a very bright but somewhat intellectually lazy person, but if you need me to spoon feed you, given the potential you are showing, I will try.

But I tend to be impatient with people intellectually, so I trust you will not try my patience too much.

There how was that?

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