THE INDEPENDENT: I don't expect my pharmacist to impose his or her private scruples
I adore the old-fashioned pharmacy. The place that sells everything from Mason Pearson hair brushes to rose water and proper scents. In summer, I spend hours buying plasters and dressings for feet cruelly betrayed by new sandals. In winter, I lurk around the homeopathic flu remedies. A great pharmacist is an asset to any local neighbourhood.
Part psychologist, part confessor, they give advice about diet, exercise and stress; help patients manage conditions from diabetes and asthma to high blood pressure, and discreetly answer questions about side effects to different drugs. We all know of times when a quick-witted pharmacist has spotted a clinical error made by a frazzled GP. Or raised concerns when a customer returns for a repeat prescription just a little too often. They are highly trained experts (all qualifying pharmacy courses are at Masters degree level and last four years). But I don't expect my pharmacist to impose his or her private moral scruples on me, the customer.
You can now buy the morning-after pill from a pharmacy without a prescription. But at the moment, pharmacists are able to decline services with which they disagree on moral or religious grounds. A significant number, mainly Christians and Muslims, refuse women the morning-after pill because they believe it is a form of abortion. I can't be the only one who has witnessed a distressed young woman brusquely told by a pharmacist that they can't help with emergency contraception. Or sent away, like a naughty child, to another pharmacy, one which (by implication) has laxer morals. >>> Liz Hoggard | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: ISRAËL | Les deux Grands rabbins d'Israël se sont élevés contre les avortements en Israël. Selon eux, les interruptions de grossesse "retardent la rédemption messianique". >>> AFP | Mardi 29 Décembre 2009
