Ethics Committee Faulted
The Project has released a report concerning the conduct of the Ethics Advisory Committee of the College of Pharmacists of BC. The report is critical of the committee for having published unsubstantiated, prejudicial statements about conscientious objectors in the College newsletter.
24 March, 2001
Conference on Conscience in
Health Care
An important conference will be held in Rome between 17 and 20 June. Speakers at The Future of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology: The Fundamental Right to Practice and be Trained According to
Conscience will include
T. Everett
Julyan, a General Practitioner from Glasgow, Scotland, who reported that he had been
denied employment due to his opposition to abortion. The list of topics to be
covered suggests that the conference will be of great interest to conscientious objectors.
Registration is not restricted to Catholics, but it is limited.
University
of Toronto Med School cited for unethical practice, coercion
A study to appear in the British Medical Journal is reported to include findings to the
effect that almost half of the University of Toronto medical students surveyed had felt
pressured to act unethically, and almost two thirds had seen their professors acting
unethically. Examples cited included practising non-therapeutic procedures on dying
patients.
Dr. Rick Frecker, associate dean of U of T's undergraduate
medical education, was approached some years ago by students about what the National Post
described as "the unethical activities and coercion that have long been part of
medical training." It appears that the study being published is a result of
his encouragement that they document what was going on.
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010323/510389.html
13 March, 2001
Cardinal
Egan challenges New York's attack on freedom of conscience
Fulfilling a promise made in February, when he was appointed to the College of Cardinals,
Edward Cardinal Egan went to Albany, New York, to argue against a proposed law that would
force Catholic employers to give up the practice of their faith and conform to state views
on contraception, something that the Catholic Church holds to be intrinsically evil.
At issue is a bill in the New York State
Assembly that would force employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception.
A New York Senate bill includes a conscience clause that would exempt religious
institutions from such a requirement. (See
Commentary)
5 March, 2001
Kentucky Conscience Bill Passes
The Kentucky Senate passed bill SB
160, a bill that will provide legal protection of freedom of conscience for pharmacists
who do not want to dispense drugs that can cause abortions. The vote in favour of the bill
was 35-1. An amendment to provide the same protection with respect to the 'morning
after pill' was defeated 27-11. The bill must proceed to the Kentucky House of
Representatives, where House Bill
106 is alreadly pending.
20 February, 2001
Protection
for pharmacists sought in three U.S. states
In January, a bill was reintroduced in the Kentucky legislature that
would exempt a pharmacist who objects to dispensing medications or devices that may
terminate a pregnancy from liability; and prohibit discrimination against a pharmacist who
objects to dispensing medications or devices that may terminate a pregnancy. (text of bill)
A bill introduced in Ohio would protect pharmacists who refuse to dispense any drug for religious or ethical reasons, thus preventing forced participation not only in abortion, but in euthanasia, assisted suicide, and other controversial procedures. The bill would also ensure that conscientious objection is not used as an excuse to cut off public funds. (text of bill) Similar protection is afforded pharmacists in a bill proposed in the Indiana Senate (text of bill), while a bill before the Indiana House of Representatives would protect conscientious objectors to abortion. (text of bill)
Bottom-line
Ethics in Pharmacy Cash vs Conscience in British Columbia
Pharmacists in British Columbia, Canada, who refuse to dispense the 'morning after pill'
for reasons of conscience risk disciplinary proceedings for violating 'professional
ethics'. However, 'professional ethics' are not violated for refusing to dispense
the drug because the fees are not high enough. (18 January, 2001)
19 February, 2001
Morning After Pill
Spurs Call for Conscientious Objection
A Leading Catholic Pharmacist Cites Abortifacient Effect
MADRID, Spain, FEB. 19, 2001 http://www.zenit.org
Given the imminent distribution throughout Spain of the "morning-after" abortive
pill, the president of the Spanish Association of Catholic Pharmacists has called on his
colleagues to be conscientious objectors.
In an interview with the weekly newspaper Alfa y Omega, of the Archdiocese of Madrid,
José Carlos Areses admitted that conscientious pharmacists might suffer financially.
Areses gave an example he himself experienced. "A state office asked me for no more
and no less than 1,000 boxes of condoms," he recalled. "I don't stock them
because I don't want to. When I said no, not only did I lose that order but all others of
that important company. It cost me, but I had to be consistent."
"In face of the culture of hedonism and of yielding to everything," he
continued, "a pharmacist must have a very clear attitude: life above everything else,
from the beginning until the end. The Pope has asked us for our contribution. The Church
needs us and we must be consistent."
According to an official of the Spanish Pharmaceuticals Agency, the abortive pill will be
sold in pharmacies throughout the country beginning this month.
"This presents a big problem for all of us," Areses warned. "The pharmacist
will be subjected to enormous pressure. They already won a goal from us with
contraceptives. They started by saying that they were 'anovulants' and, in the beginning,
they had many counter-indications; then they streamlined them.
"Each time they had fewer secondary effects; eventually, they were no longer
contraceptives impeding ovulation, but many also served as
abortifacients, because they
impeded the imbedding of the fertilized ovum. Indeed, the prospectus of the morning-after
pill states that, in fact, its action is 50% contraceptive. The other 50% is against
implantation, in other words, abortifacient."
He said the current tragedy lies in the substitution of surgical abortion by chemical
abortion.
"Surgical abortion is traumatic for a woman, because it is surgery, it is a very hard
moment for her," Areses observed. "Now, instead, we are falling into saying: We
are going to overcome that and the woman will be able to make her child disappear without
the need of a surgeon. ...
"The big problem is that today with these pills it seems that no one has killed any
one. This is the great problem and our great responsibility as pharmacists."
Areses said that a pharmacist has the right to conscientious objection, something
that is "recognized by the Spanish Constitution." Likewise, he assures that this
right would be defended better if the corporation of Spanish pharmacists adopted an ethics
code, as, for example, the doctors have.
Areses concluded by asserting that behind the morning-after abortive pill "enormous
quantities of money move. That really is true. There are huge, impressive interests."
ZENIT NEWS 01021904
3 February, 2001
Belgian pharmacist
refuses to dispense MAP, condoms
A Christian pharmacist in Belgium, Paul Vannes from Ruisbroek, has stopped selling condoms
or morning-after pills after spending retreats at different abbeys and being convinced of
the error of his ways. The Society of the Belgian Pharmacists is concerned about the
development. Belgian law apparently provides for conscientious objection, but the extent
of civil liability is unclear.
Belgian pharmacist
refuses to dispense MAP, condoms
A Christian pharmacist in Belgium, Paul Vannes from Ruisbroek, has stopped selling condoms
or morning-after pills after spending retreats at different abbeys and being convinced of
the error of his ways. The Society of the Belgian Pharmacists is concerned about the
development. Belgian law apparently provides for conscientious objection, but the extent
of civil liability is unclear.
2 February, 2001
Canadian M.P. continues efforts
Member of Parliament Maurice Vellacott re-introduced his protection of conscience
bill in the Canadian House of Commons. (text of bill)
24 January, 2001
Pharmacist gains in lawsuit
for wrongful dismissal
A court has ruled that a pharmacist who was fired by K-Mart for refusing to
dispense
the 'morning after pill' may proceed with her suit. The judge ruled that the Ohio law
that allows conscientious objection to abortion also applies to pharmacists who refuse to
dispense the 'morning after pill'. The contra-implantation effect of the pill was
acknowledged to be of fundamental importance in determining the application of the law.
(See ACLJ
news release)
8 January, 2001
Canadian
Pharmaceutical Journal suggests possibility of compromise
In its first editorial of the new year, the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal appears to be
taking a second and more considered look at the possibility of accommodating conscientious
objection within the profession. Editor Andrew Reinboldt correctly identifies referral (or
"pre-arranged access") as a key issue in the controversy. Most
promising is his suggestion that regulatory authorities "may have to be more
flexible and creative" on this point, especially in larger centres,
where the drug is widely available. He also questions the claim that conscientious
objection can't be allowed in 'one pharmacist' communities. (See the Project
response to the editorial.)