Ellen Goodman on conscience clauses and dispensing morality.

And over here, Ellen Goodman weighs in on the whole pharmacist/conscience clause thing.

I'm not done with this topic yet and it's no secret what I think of these "pro-life", sanctimonious weasels. But I'm amused by this excerpt from Goodman's piece:

Pharmacists don't have the same claim to refuse filling a prescription as a doctor has to refuse performing an abortion. But there are other ways to exercise a private conscience clause. Indeed, in a conflict between your job and your ethics, you can quit. It happens every day.

When Thoreau refused to pay taxes as a war protest, remember, he went to jail. What the pharmacists and others are asking for is conscience without consequence. The plea to protect their conscience is a thinly veiled ploy for conquest.

Conscience without consequence. Principle without repercussions. Gosh, where have we heard that before? Oh, yeah ... here. :-)

But my self-indulgent preening aside, here's another suggestion. A number of folks (including moi) have suggested that one way to respond to "pro-life" pharmacists is to boycott their stores. A reasonable idea but, unless you actually get turned away trying to fill a prescription, you might never learn that the pharmacy you frequent has one of these fundamentalist nutbars tending the pharmacy counter.

A simple solution would be to require (yes, require) pharmacies that employ these loons to post prominently on their storefront a sign along the lines of:

NOTE: This store employs one or more pharmacists who reserve the right to refuse to process your prescription for any reason, based on their moral or religious beliefs.

Personally, I don't think this is an outrageous requirement. If a pharmacy isn't embarrassed to have a "pro-life" pharmacist working on staff, they shouldn't be embarrassed about announcing that to the world, which makes it so much easier for customers to decide if they want to take their business elsewhere.

Thoughts?