[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: ETHICIST PHARMACISTS RAISES CONCERNS AS PHARMACIST CONSCIENCE RULE IS CHALLENGED; more....

Fri Mar 20 11:50:54 MDT 2009

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 20 Mar 2009 AD

*
http://www.hwbooks.com/pdf/news_release/pharmacist_conscience.pdf
Contact: Stanley J. Lloyd PharmD

Telephone: 513/793-3555

Fax: 513/793-3600

E-mail: nwsjloyd at theannals.com

* *

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ETHICIST PHARMACISTS RAISES CONCERNS AS PHARMACIST CONSCIENCE RULE IS 
CHALLENGED*

CINCINNATI, March 2009 -- A recent commentary concludes that pharmacists 
require freedom of
conscience in order to provide the best patient care. "The 'Hijacking' 
of Moral Conscience from
Pharmacy Practice: A Canadian Perspective" by pharmacist and ethicist 
Cristina Alarcon, a pharmacist and clinical
instructor at the University of British Columbia, is available online 
from /The Annals of Pharmacotherapy/
(www.theannals.com) and will appear in the April 2009 issue. The 
article's release coincides with recent
plans to remove a federal rule that clarifies and protects US healthcare 
workers' conscience rights.

In the wake of ongoing medical developments, pharmacists increasingly 
face involvement with
controversial procedures such as assisted suicide and abortion. Laws, 
policies, and professional guidelines
exist to promote professional integrity. Yet some can require 
pharmacists to provide services contrary to
their ethical beliefs, potentially interfering with their professional 
judgment and their abilities to provide
patient care with integrity and a full sense of responsibility.

Although written from the perspective of Canadian laws and practice 
standards, the article applies to
healthcare workers in all settings. Arguing that conscience rights are 
neither arbitrary nor subject to
removal, Alarcon explains they are a natural and necessary part of all 
public life. "Protection of
conscience is crucial if we are to foster a society where citizens are 
free to dissent from popular opinion,"
she explains. "This is especially true in modern Western democracies, 
where the concept of majority rule
can lead to the mistaken notion that 'might' makes 'right'."

Early online publication of Alarcon's article coincides with the US 
Department of Health and Human
Services' proposal to overturn the regulation entitled "Ensuring that 
Department of Health and Human
Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or 
Practices in Violation of Federal
Law." The regulation clarifies and strengthens laws that protect the 
rights and freedoms of healthcare
providers, including pharmacists, when they choose to not participate in 
ethically controversial medical
procedures. A 30-day comment period was opened on March 10 to seek 
public input on the rule and its
pending reversal. Interested parties may comment to the Department of 
Health and Human Services by
April 9, 2009, at proposedrescission at hhs.gov.

/ /

/The Annals of Pharmacotherapy/, now in its 43rd year of publication, is 
a leading peer-reviewed,
international pharmacotherapy journal for physicians, pharmacists, and 
other healthcare practitioners.
Published by Harvey Whitney Books Company, /The Annals /features 
articles directly related to the safe,
effective, and economical use of medications and related devices in 
patient care. The journal's editorial
office is headquartered at 8044 Montgomery Road, Suite 415, Cincinnati, 
Ohio 45236-2998, USA. The
journal is available online at www.theannals.com.

###
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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92186 
<http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92186>
This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which 
follows.
To view this item online, visit 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=92186
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
WorldNetDaily Exclusive*
Teens' abortion technique:
Drink poisonous mixture
Ending unwanted pregnancy as easy
as swallowing veterinary medicine
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 19, 2009
12:40 am Eastern

By Bob Unruh

------------------------------------------------------------------------
WorldNetDaily

Some teens in rural America are now self-inducing abortions with 
chemicals intended to abort livestock, reports one of the nation's 
oldest and most influential pro-life organizations.

"What kind of world have we created for these girls that they're 
drinking poison and risking death in these modern-day back-alley 
abortions, rather than bear their child in love," asked Judie Brown, 
president of the American Life League, <http://www.all.org/>

The grisly situation was first exposed through the efforts of Anna 
Anderson, head of the Care Net Pregnancy Center in Green County, Wis., 
who reported the trend on the Stephenson County Right to Life website of 
Freeport, Ill.

/(Story continues below)/

Anderson reported getting numerous calls and visits to her pregnancy 
care center from teens who either had taken the drugs or were worried 
about friends who had taken them.

Cases have been documented in at least three rural Wisconsin counties, 
she said.

The drugs, kept on farms for management of livestock under the names 
Prostaglandins, Cystorelin, Factrel, Gonadorelin or Lutalyse, were being 
ingested orally in large quantities, even though animals are treated by 
injection, the alert said.

/Get the powerful best seller, "The Marketing of Evil" by David 
Kupelian, and discover the incredible truth of how abortion has been 
sold to Americans with wall-to-wall lies and deception. 
<http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?DEPARTMENT_ID=6&SUBDEPARTMENT_ID=94&ITEM_ID=1679>/ 

Besides resulting in the death of the unborn baby, other complications 
that could ensue include infections, blood loss and even death.

"If I hadn't known the woman who reported this, I wouldn't have believed 
it," Brown said.

But both Wisconsin and national veterinary associations have 
acknowledged the problem.

According to the American Animal Hospital Association 
<http://www.aahanet.org/resources/report_abortions_cows.aspx> warning, 
its state officials in Wisconsin "contacted the district school nurse, 
who verified that the district has received reports of this abuse."

"This situation underscores the need for veterinarians to remain 
vigilant about storing, distributing, prescribing and using veterinary 
products that can pose human health risks," the advisory said.

Brown blamed it on parents' lack of communication with their children.

"We are currently in a meltdown situation with regard to the kinds of 
communication parents are having with their children," she said. "The 
parents no longer are truly in charge of their children. They have 
surrendered control to the public school system."

She wondered what kind of circumstances would allow young girls to not 
"feel obligated" to discuss with their parents an issue such as 
ingesting poison.

ALL had only days earlier issued a report 
<http://www.stopp.org/pdfs/2008/2008ReportPPFacilitiesUS.pdf> revealing 
that in the last two years, 61 additional Planned Parenthood facilities 
have started offering "medical," as distinguished from surgical, abortions.

Quoting Celebrate Life editor Stephanie Hopping, Brown noted veterinary 
medication abortions "illustrate that decriminalized abortion does not 
stop highly dangerous abortion methods like this. In fact, it probably 
encourages the use of them mightily, because this is hardly different 
from an RU-486 abortion, except that it isn't done under medical 
supervision."

ALL also has reported medical abortions are on the rise, based on a 
survey of offerings from Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest 
abortion provider.

"A teenager who is trying to hide the truth from her parents, and knows 
that the local farmer has a drug that is going to take care of her 
'problem,' could not only succeed in killing her baby, but could kill 
herself," said Brown.

"The culture of death would shed not a tear, of course, but for those of 
us who struggle to restore moral sanity to America, a report like this 
sends shivers down our spines," she said.

Anderson's warning reported she knew the practice had been going on "at 
least since this past summer when a young 'hired' man in our area gave a 
girl a medication meant to (among other uses) induce abortions in cows 
and horses to cause her to abort their child."

"This is a very deadly drug for fetuses," she continued. "According to a 
local veterinarian, pregnant women are not even supposed to handle the 
bottles in which it is stored unless they are wearing gloves. Needless 
to say this girl lost the baby. The drug consists of a high 
concentration of hormones so human ingestion of it is not poisonous to 
the girls but it is deadly to the developing fetus and has potentially 
deadly consequences for the girls.

"The news of this young couple's success in aborting their baby has 
spread through the Monroe High School and possibly elsewhere, which has 
resulted in other pregnant girls obtaining and consuming this drug in 
order to abort their unborn babies," Anderson reported.

"Some of the girls who are taking the drug are much further along in 
their pregnancies than the original girl. This is resulting in 
life-threatening complications for the pregnant girls when the drug 
successfully results in the placenta pulling away from the uterine wall; 
the baby being starved; the baby then dying; which results in spotting 
and uterine contractions followed by an abortion of the baby. In these 
more advanced pregnancies, these girls could potentially bleed to death 
or have a life-threatening systemic infection if the uterus is not 
completely emptied of the baby and other pregnancy tissues. In addition, 
one physician said that there could be clotting issues because of this 
drug."

She warned, "Girls (and obviously their babies) are going to be dying 
because of this. Babies have already died because of it.

"If this is going on at our high school, chances are that it is 
happening at other high schools as well -- especially in rural 
agricultural areas. Unsuspecting parents and anyone else who might be in 
a position to help these girls and stop this deadly practice need to be 
aware of this 'drug abuse' among area teens," Anderson said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Maryland considers 'Personhood Amendment'*
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=456260 
<http://ss.all.org/link.php?M=14770&N=59&L=443&F=H>
One News Now
Maryland is the latest state to consider a Personhood amendment.  In 
Maryland, the only way to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the 
ballot is through approval by the legislature. Johanna Dasteel of the 
American Life League says the purpose of the personhood amendment is 
simple. "It's designed to grant personhood to all human beings -- so all 
the rights and privileges that come along with being considered a 
person," she explains. The amendment would define personhood from the 
biological beginning, regardless of the method of reproduction. Dasteel 
has discussed the issue with people throughout the country, including 
Maryland.

Prof. Dianne Irving presented testimony to the Maryland assembly last 
week and that testimony is available at the main news page for PFLI: 
http://www.pfli.org

------------------------------------------------------------------------
PFLI PharmAid Center

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800-227-8359
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PFLI supports pharmacist rights of conscience NOT to be forced to 
dispense or counsel for chemicals which violate their sincerely held 
religious, moral or ethical beliefs.  For more info see:
http://www.pfli.org/main.php?pfli=conscienceclausefaq

*** PFLI is the only pharmacy association which is exclusively pro-life.
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