Dispense medication, not judgement

On Monday, Pope Benedict gave a speech at the Vatican, telling Catholic pharmacists to refuse to dispense medications with "clearly immoral goals". Read between the lines, he means medications used for pregnancy prevention and euthanasia.

Now, I know, you are probably saying "the Pope is against birth control, blow me over with a feather". True, the Vatican makes no secret of the fact that they are opposed to any "artificial" birth control methods. What is scary is the context and what else he said. He said it was a "recognized right" to object to things you find morally objectionable. That means that if you are a pharmacist, or any person for that matter, who has the control over what someone else needs, you can put your moral judgment above theirs. He also says that the pharmacist has a right to tell someone of the moral implications that their decisions have. So, the Pope is also OK'ing prostylitizing to other people. (Also, it would be great if he could talked about things based on medical facts, like how medications like Plan B prevent conception, so that you end up preventing many abortions from even taking place.)

I understand that the Catholic Church and the Pope have their beliefs. I also understand that it is a Papal Doctrine and the Catholic laws themselves have no restrictions to determining life or use of birth control. As someone who comes from a Catholic background, I have no problem with Catholics following what their beliefs tell them. Many family members and I disagree on many issues, but we are glad we have a right to disagree and that we can both live freely with that. What I have a major problem with is when they, or anyone else for that matter, start infringing on my right to my own beliefs. Here in the US, we may not think much about this, thanks to Right to Privacy and what groups like Planned Parenthood have done to maintain separation of church and state in medicine, but in strongly Catholic countries, this is a huge interferrence to what women should have available if they want/need it.

If Pharmacists start following the guidelines that the Pope gives, where does it end? So, you oppose birth controls, Plan B, etc... but what about when someone comes in to get medications for HIV/AIDS? I mean, if you are opposing birth control because you believe that people should wait until marriage (even though an overwhelming number doesn't), then if someone contracts an STD, can you oppose giving them the life saving medications they need? The Vatican has stated that there needs to be support for people living with HIV/AIDS, so would that mean that its OK to treat them once they have it, but after you shake your finger at them? Is that what the world needs?

Times are changing. Like it or not, these life saving medications are available. People are able to go on to lead healthy and successful lives so that later on if they make the choice to have children, those children are going to be brought into a much healthier situation that they will certainly thrive in better. There is widespread poverty and illness in the world, something that the Vatican has always said is their main goal to eradicate. So, I hope they work on that and I hope they do a great job, I just wish that the church would stay out of my pharmacy. I heard once that one of the CEO's of a major national chain pharmacy said "your job is to dispense medication, not judgment. If you can't do that, maybe this isn't the job for you". I agree wholeheartedly.