Posted on Home Shopping Bulletin Board:
DENTON, Texas (AP) -- Eckerd Corp. has fired three pharmacists who declined
to fill an emergency contraception prescr`ip`tion for a woman who had been
raped, one of the pharmacists said. Gene Herr said Wednesday he and two
co-workers were fired January 29, six days after refusing to fill the
prescr`ip`tion. He said his own refusal was based on religious grounds.
Eckerd has declined to comment on their employment status. Joan Gallagher,
the vice president of communications for Largo, Florida-based Eckerd would
say only that the company has taken appropriate disciplinary action. Herr,
33, of Denton, said he declined to fill the prescr`ip`tion for the so-called
"morning-after pill" because he believes it could have killed the embryo if
the woman already had conceived. Though he had declined five or six times in
the past to fill such presc`ri`ptions, it was the first time he had been
handed one for a rape victim, he said. "I went in the back room and briefly
prayed about it," said Herr, who had worked for Eckerd for five years. "I
actually called my pastor ... and asked him what he thought about it." The
two other pharmacists who were present also declined to fill the
presc`rip`tion. Herr would not name them. The rape victim had the
prescri`ption filled at a nearby pharmacy. Gallagher said Eckerd's
employment manual says pharmacists are not allowed to opt out of filling a
prescri`pt`ion for religious, moral or ethical reasons. Herr said he did not
know about that policy until his supervisors questioned him about it shortly
before he was fired. "In my mind if I agree to work for someone knowing that
that's their policy, then I should submit to that policy. But I didn't even
know about it," he said. Morning-after pills are higher doses of the
hormones in regular birth control pills and have been sold under the brand
names Plan B and Preven since 1998. Taken within 72 hours of se`xual
intercourse, the pills are at least 75 percent effective at preventing
pregnancy.

My thoughts as a pharmacist:
Everyone must act in accordance with their conscience. If a pharmacist
feels it is immoral to dispense a drug which is perfectly legal in  that
state, then perhaps that pharmacist should contemplate practicing in a
different setting, such as manufacturing or research......

As a discussion point, is this the same issue as was previously discussed
on this group in regard to filling prescriptions legally written in some
states
for suicide pills?

What do pharmacists think on this?
Is there a different obligation of the part of an employee in carrying out
the policy of his employer from that of an owner-proprietor who can
chose their clients?