Wanted - Pharmacists Without Moral Conscience

As reported in the July 22 Columbian, Pharmacy board reconsiders "refuse and refer" stance, the Washington state pharmacy board is re-evaluating, under pressure from the Governor, their policy "that allowed pharmacists to refuse filling a prescription if they have personal objections."

In their July 25 editorial, In Our View - Change of Heart?, The Columbian editorial board concluded:

"the solution is simple: Make druggists fill prescriptions. Pharmacists know the nature of the work when they enter the profession. If they don't like some aspects of connecting physicians and patients to legal drugs, then they should find other work and let nonpartisan, apolitical pharmacists do the work that the public needs and expects."

My friend and mentor, Jerome Wernow, is Executive Director of the Northwest Center for Bioethics responded to the editorial board:

I read your paper's editorial on the 'incorrect' decision of the WSBP regarding the pharmacist's right to opt out of dispensing abortifacients should they find it morally repugnant. This has been a prerogative of the profession in the US since the Church Amendment of 1973, the APHA ethical standard since 1998, and in the history of the profession an option since the Hippocratic Code 400 BCE, and that is long before NARAL imposed their will to power on an honorable profession. I wonder if the confusion isn't really caused by abortion advocates who desire to drive anyone out of their health care profession who defy their politically created structures.

Dr. Leo Alexander warned of such intolerance in his classic 1949 New England Journal of Medicine addressing his findings in the Nuremburg trials. The article is well worth reading even if you do not agree with my dissent against your position.

As a bioethicist and pharmacist, I question your understanding of the ethical issues and the facts regarding Plan B contraception. Would you or one of your editors would be open tod iscussing the issue face to face for the purpose of presenting adifferent point of view about the history, professional standards of pharmacy practice, and politic surrounding conscience clauses?

Professionally,
Jerome R. Wernow Ph.D., R.Ph.
Executive Director
Northwest Center for Bioethics

As of this writing, the Columbian editorial board has not responded to Dr. Wernow's invitation.