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No to the ECP?!

Blogs are not edited by PJ staff*. The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Pharmaceutical Journal.

*Blog pieces that have previously been printed in the PJ and Clinical Pharmacist are edited.

By Faiza Rafique
6 Oct 2011

I have always found the issue of refusing the Emergency Contraceptive Pill (ECP) to someone who comes into your pharmacy as slightly controversial. I know that as a pharmacist we are able to decline the sale of the "morning after pill" if it goes against our personal or religious beliefs. However, I feel that this can be approached in two different ways- here is both sides of the argument:

1) Ok , so your personal/religious beliefs may be against, say, sex before marriage or contraception. Therefore you refuse it based on the grounds that you feel it contradicts your beliefs as some people believe that life begins at conception

However this brings me to the next argument:

2) As a healthcare professional we are supposed to remain impartial and not judge our customers/patients. We are also there to provide a service which includes the ECP. If we do not judge or refuse methadone to a user (and many religious beliefs have the view that we should not intoxicate our bodies) then do we really have the right to refuse the morning after pill?

What are your thoughts?

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Thu, 06/10/2011 - 23:49 – Benjamin McEwan

Point about methadone

The point you raise about methadone being a substance which people with certain religious beliefs (essentially those in monotheistic religions such as Christianity) should refuse is invalid and possibly offensive. All individuals are entitled to medical treatment to sustain life. All drugs have side effects and hence can all be described as toxic to some extent. whilst I don't disagree with providing contraceptive measures, I completely disagree with the validity of the comparison made. Phamacists have the right to exercise the conscience clause and by acting non judgementally and referring patients to a medical provider who can provide emergency contraception they are still acting in the best interests of the patient.
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Fri, 07/10/2011 - 06:37 – Faiza Rafique

...

Hi Benjamin, I am really sorry if I have offended you,however the point I was trying to make was that a pharmacy offers a range of services methadone being one of them,so it was only that perhaps the ECP should be part of the service a pharmacist provides. However,the blog was only comparing two sides of an argument. Sorry again for any offence caused. FaizaR
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Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:16 – Ben Nicholson

A strange mixture of law and ethics...

This is such a controversial (yet interesting) topic so thank you for raising it in your blog.

It would be pointless for me simply to state my view on this, however I have a few "leading questions"...

Will a doctor (who is a Jehovah's Witness and therefore morally against accepting or donating blood) still give their patient a blood transfusion if they need one?

If the answer is "yes as they have taken a hippocratic oath to act in the patient's best interests", then how is this different from a Pharmacist, who is against EHC, still giving it because it is in their patient's best interests??

If the answer is "no, they are allowed to ask another doctor/ qualified healthcare professional to suprevise a transfusion", one could argue that this is delaying the patient's treatment and therefore not in their best interests. This scenario appears to me to be similar to that where a Pharmacist refers the patient to another pharmacist for EHC, thus delaying the treatment and possibly even reducing the effectivness of the EHC when it is recieved...

(I would just like to point out I have no problem with any belief, religious or otherwise, which a person holds, however it obviously becomes a 'grey area' when a person is in a healthcare role such as pharmacy)

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