Protection of Conscience Project News
Service, not Servitude
Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of National Right to Life Committee’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics in the USA, has warned that protection of conscience laws like the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act and Mississippi’s Health Care Rights of Conscience Act are dangerous because they may permit health care workers to commit euthanasia by withdrawing or refusing to provide medical treatment for reasons of conscience. [NRTL News]
Readers might be confused by Susan Martinuk’s quote from the College of Pharmacists about what the future may hold for the profession: “preparation of drugs to assist voluntary or involuntary suicide, cloning, genetic manipulation or even suicide.” (Customer isn’t always right on issues of conscience, The Province, 13 June, 2001).
The College Registrar has explained that “involuntary suicide” should have read “involuntary euthanasia“, a clarification that hardly diminishes the moral issues that arise when people are killed without their consent. The second reference to suicide in the same quote is an error in Ms. Martinuk’s article. The sentence in the College statement ended, “…or even execution“. The reference is to the participation of pharmacists in execution by lethal injection, as in the case of Timothy McVeigh.
The paper quoted by Ms. Martinuk was written by the Ethics Advisory Committee of the College, and included imputations of dishonesty directed against conscientious objectors within the profession which the College is unable to substantiate, but which it refuses to withdraw. It is difficult to see how this is consistent with justice nor non-maleficence, two ethical principles that are supposed to be upheld by ethics committees.
Sean Murphy, Administrator
Protection of Conscience Project
News Release
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Madison–A stamp of approval was given to Assembly Bill 307 (late Thursday),
legislation that will provide much needed job security for pharmacists who conscientiously object to dispensing drugs or devices that can cause death through abortion, euthanasia or physician assisted suicide.
In response to compelling testimony from several Wisconsin pharmacists, the Assembly Family Law Committee in a 4-2 vote sent this measure on for expected full approval of the Wisconsin Assembly. Pro-Life Wisconsin applauds the support of committee chair Rep. Carol Owens (R-Oshkosh), who authored the bill, as well as committee members Rep. Steve Kestell (R-Elkhart Lake), Rep. Don Friske (R-Merrill) and Rep. Joan Wade (R-Montello). The dissenting votes came from pro-abortion legislative leader Rep. Terese Berceua (D-Madison) and Rep. Peggy Krusick (D-Milwaukee), who in the past has claimed to be pro-life.
“New abortion techniques focusing on chemical means to end the lives of a preborn babies have received FDA approval or have become more readily available,” explained Mary Matuska, Pro-Life Wisconsin legislative director.
“While abortion was formerly relegated to a clinical setting, it is now possible to receive life-ending drugs in a pharmacy, forcing pharmacists to be party to abortion.”
Opposing testimony used the scare tactic that this bill would ban birth control. “This is not true,” stated Mary Matuska. “This bill will not make drugs such as the morning-after pill and the birth control pill unavailable. It simply recognizes that employers cannot force pharmacists to be directly involved in abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia. It recognizes that pharmacists, like doctors and nurses, are valued health care professionals who should not be forced to choose between their consciences and their livelihoods.”
AB 307 is modelled after legislation which was enacted into law in March, 1998, in the state of South Dakota. Legislatures in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and a few other states are currently considering legislation that would recognize the rights of pharmacists not to engage in procedures that violate their consciences.
“People who call themselves “pro-choice” should especially understand the intent of this bill,” stated Peggy Hamill, Pro-Life Wisconsin state director.
“Pharmacists should have the right to choose not to be complicit in the taking of innocent human life.”
Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director, or Katherine Ribnek, Communications Director (262) 796-1111 (daytime phone) or (414) 416-0489 (cell phone)
In a policy statement that included reference to dispensing euthanasia drugs, RU486 and the ‘morning after pill’, Canada Safeway advised pharmacists who have conscientious objections to dispensing certain drugs that they would be required to do so if a non-objecting pharmacist was not available.