[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Professionals or automatons, make up you mind?!

Thu Apr 16 07:08:07 MDT 2009

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 16 Apr 2009 AD

*
**
*Conscience Alert!  B Hussein O'Bama Admin creeps closer to Soviet model!
***
**
**
/BIG SIS FEELS HEAT FOR HOMELAND WARNING ON RIGHT WING 'RADICALS', 
DEMONIZING PRO-LIFERS, OTHERS/ 
<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iY4U7grAdfoZTwVsntWagLqvr-vwD97J67100> 
**

*NSA intercepts private e-mail messages, phone calls of Americans in 
recent months; Exceed limits set by congress... 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/16nsa.html>

**/HOMELAND INSECURITY
WorldNetDaily Exclusive/*
Why call Americans 'extremists?' DHS asked 
Freedom of Information Act request seeks 'basis' for report 
<http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95149>
--WND

*/WorldNetDaily/*
McVeigh cited /again/ as reason for 'right wing' warning 
'There was a very tragic example of a threat that was realized' 
<http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95138>
--WND

Napolitano stands by 'extremism' report
'We must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or 
homegrown' <http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95077>
--Washington Times

Top Dem 'dumbfounded' by 'extremism' report
'Significant issues involving the privacy and civil liberties of many 
Americans' <http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95150>
--Washington Times

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*
*
*http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/professionals_or_automatons/*
** 

  Professionals or automatons?

    Should pharmacists have the right to act according to their
    consciences, or are they prescription-filling robots?

/The right of acting according to one's conscience is under threat in 
many countries at the moment. In the US, the Federal government is 
studying whether to rescind protection of conscience regulations 
implemented in the dying days of the Bush Administration. Healthcare 
workers there are worried that they may have to participate in unethical 
procedures -- or lose their jobs. A Canadian pharmacist and bioethicist, 
Cristina Alarcon, explains what is at stake in her profession.

//*MercatorNet*: Many pharmacists find legal developments in the US and 
Canada disturbing. Why?/
*/Alarcon/:* The big thing in the news is the removal of the Bush 
Administration's Conscience Protection Rule. Pending a review, the Obama 
Administration intends to rescind it. In a sense this rule shouldn't 
have been necessary at all, as the rights of freedom of conscience and 
religion of all citizens, those of healthcare providers included, ought 
to have the protection of the American constitution. If the rule is 
rescinded, it may set a precedent for handling conscientious objectors 
in other parts of the world.
If Americans want to see what is going to happen, they can just look 
over the border. In Canada, although the Charter of Rights and Freedoms 
is supposed to protect freedom of conscience and freedom of religion as 
well as freedom of expression, healthcare professionals are increasingly 
being pressured by licensing authorities to provide all legal products 
and services. Pharmacists with conscience issues are having a 
particularly tough time.

/*MercatorNet:* But what does ethics have to do with pharmacy? Aren't 
you just doing a job?/
*/Alarcon/:* Every profession faces ethical challenges. Pharmacy is no 
exception, and may have more than most. For instance, a drug addict may 
ask for a refill of her legally prescribed narcotic way too early. What 
should I do? It can be very difficult to withstand the pressure and 
abuse hurled at you by an angry woman addicted to prescription drugs.

/*MercatorNet:* But the big issue here isn't drug addicts. It's 
basically women who want something which is perfectly legal: emergency 
contraception. They say that their lives could be ruined if they can't 
get what they want. /
*/Alarcon/:* You've tangled up at least three issues here.
First of all, just because something is legal, it may not be appropriate 
for the person who is asking for it. For example, it is my ethical and 
professional duty to ensure that a prescription is appropriate and the 
dosage is correct. A perfectly legal prescription may be 
contra-indicated for a particular patient due to an incompatibility with 
other drugs or with a medical condition. It would therefore not be 
ethically sound for me to dispense it. Furthermore, in pharmacy school 
we were always taught to be particularly careful not to give a harmful 
drug to a pregnant woman. Should we comply now just because she does not 
want a baby? Why the double standard?
Second, because something is legal, it may not be ethical. Should 
pharmacists or other medical professionals be forced to assist in the 
provision of euthanasia drugs or drugs for execution if these become 
legal? Pharmacists in Belgium, the Netherlands, and some American states 
are already facing these issues.
Third, pharmacists should be allowed to follow their own consciences. 
They are not automatons but morally and ethically responsible agents.

/*MercatorNet:* But you are a professional. Shouldn't you hang up your 
conscience at the door when you start work? /
*/Alarcon/:* Being a professional precisely means bringing conscience to 
bear in my work. I am not there just to follow orders, but to take full 
responsibility for my own actions and omissions. If I am a consistent 
person, then my ethical standards will necessarily influence the 
decisions I take. No one can be forced to have two systems of morality: 
one for work and another for home would produce a fragmented personality 
indeed!
For instance, if someone asks for my opinion on a certain herbal remedy, 
I tell them honestly whether it is a good idea to give it a try. My 
patients really appreciate this. They know they can trust me. Some 
pharmacists will not take the time and will just give patients whatever 
they ask them for.

/*MercatorNet:* Do any professional associations recognise a right of 
refusal [i.e. a right of conscience]? /
*/Alarcon/:* In the United States, the American Pharmacists Association 
supports the idea of pharmacists being allowed to step away from 
participating in an activity to which they have a moral objection. This 
was because of Oregon's law regarding physician-assisted suicide. Some 
Pharmacy Boards (these are the licensing authorities) also support 
conscience clauses.
In contrast, since the mid-1990s, most Canadian boards have established 
new codes of ethics that show little respect for the right to refuse to 
fill a prescription for anything that can be perceived as personal moral 
reasons. They really fail to see that it is difficult to separate moral 
conscience from professional conscience, and that while pharmacists do 
not like to have to inconvenience patients, the reality is that 
inconveniences happen every day for a variety of reasons and not only 
due to moral conflict; because a product may not be in stock, or a 
particular pharmacy can't get it, or simply because a pharmacist is 
against ordering it for financial reasons.
If Americans follow the Canadian model, they will see the demise of 
their basic civil liberties.
I must say that the US has seen some pretty crafty, not to say shady, 
characters recently. Take for example the disgraced former governor of 
Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who issued an executive order in 2005 
(following his own ideology and in violation of state laws), forcing all 
retail pharmacies "without delay" to provide levonorgestrel emergency 
contraception. While the ruling resulted in immediate access for a 
comparatively small number of women, it also resulted in court battles 
and in dozens of pharmacists being fired or suspended for refusing on 
ethical or religious grounds to dispense the drugs. His executive order 
was disgraceful pandering-to-the-public populism. It then turned out 
that he was a colossal fraud, as he was caught in a political corruption 
scandal. Perhaps no respect for a pharmacist's conscience also means 
little respect for one's own.

/*MercatorNet:* Hang on, why can't you just refer to a neighbouring 
pharmacist? Doesn't that solve all the difficulties?/
*/Alarcon/:* Answering this is straightforward. To refer for a product 
or service I myself would not provide would be like providing it myself. 
It would be cooperation with the wrongness of the act itself. Can't you 
see how ridiculous it would be if I were to say "Sorry, Mrs Jones, I 
cannot help you to kill yourself, but my colleague here will."

/*MercatorNet:* But Canada is a vast country. There must be many 
isolated towns where the local pharmacist is the only provider of 
emergency contraception. What excuse is there for not supplying? /
*/Alarcon/:* Although we hear a lot of talk about reproductive freedom, 
there is no freedom in treating pregnancy as though it were a disease 
and a woman's fertility cycle as though it were an accident of nature. 
If women knew just how well orchestrated their bodies are, they would 
not want to put this type of garbage into them. They would regain a 
healthy respect for the beauty and wonder of human reproduction coupled 
with human love.
However, the world being what it is, if women insist on having this 
product made readily available, then dispensing machines could easily be 
installed in all the isolated towns. Already the product is readily 
available off the shelves in most Canadian provinces, so what is to stop 
a woman from stocking up? But the consequences, both medical and 
psychological, of repeated use of these powerful steroids (an overdose 
of birth control pills) may only be realized years down the road. Don't 
blame me then!

/*MercatorNet:* I have the impression that you think that the pharmacy 
boards in the various provinces of Canada are spineless wonders. Am I 
right? /
*/Alarcon/:* Spineless wonders! I like that! It is true that while 
Canadian pharmacy regulatory boards consider themselves to be world 
leaders in promoting professionalism and pharmaceutical care in pharmacy 
practice, most have failed to properly discharge their duty of care to 
pharmacists. They really take no note of Canadian and international 
human rights laws and their codes of ethics betray a one-size-fits-all 
pragmatic approach to patient care. Some Boards go so far as to warn 
pharmacists against preaching or imposing their morality. Surely, 
sharing ideas or convictions is not demeaning.
Fundamentally, the Colleges or boards fail to see that some pharmacists 
really just want to live coherently as unified persons, not fragmented 
personalities living by different ethical standards according to whether 
they are at work or at home. Their professional realization, which forms 
part of a truly happy and peaceful life, and their ability to genuinely 
care for the welfare of their patients, can be achieved only by living a 
truly integrated life, wherein they say what they believe, do what they 
say, and keep their word, all in accordance with their individual 
conscience and with ethical dignity and freedom.

/* Cristina Alarcon is a pharmacist in West Vancouver, BC, Canada. She 
is credentialed with a bachelors in pharmacy and a masters in bioethics. *

/
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/>This article is 
published by *Cristina Alarcon*, and MercatorNet.com under a Creative 
Commons license. You may republish it or translate it free of charge 
with attribution for non-commercial purposes following these guidelines 
<http://www.mercatornet.com/info/copyright_and_syndication>. If you 
teach at a university, we ask that your department make a donation. 
Commercial media must contact us <mailto:mcook at mercatornet.com> for 
permission and fees. Some articles on this site are published under 
different terms. Published by PFLI with author's permission.

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*
*
*Daniel T. Zanoza, Executive Director *
*Dan at rffm.org* <mailto:Dan at rffm.org>*  *

April 14, 2009  

      *Sandra Cantu and the Plague of Murdered Children: Result of
      Abortion, Pornography & Liberal Agenda
      <http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2009/04/sandra-cantu-and-the-plague-of-murdered-children-result-of-abortion-pornography-a-liberal-society-.html>*

*by Daniel T. Zanoza*

It was horrific.  A surveillance tape pictured eight year old Sandra 
Cantu gleefully skipping away from her home in Tracy, California.  
Sandra's destination was mere yards down the block to play with a young 
friend.  The video was the last image of Sandra alive before she was 
brutally murdered, stuffed into a suit case and eventually dumped into a 
drainage pond where she was left in a temporary, watery grave.
** 
The alleged murderer, Melissa Huckaby, a 28 year old Sunday school 
teacher and mother of the slain child's best friend, was the last 
individual Sandra Cantu saw on that fateful day and we can only imagine 
the horror this innocent child of God experienced during her final 
moments on Earth....cont'd at link above... 
<http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2009/04/sandra-cantu-and-the-plague-of-murdered-children-result-of-abortion-pornography-a-liberal-society-.html>

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