Today’s edition of [The Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com) has an [interesting article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/29/AR2006012900869.html?sub=AR) about legislation that will allow healthcare workers “who do not want to provide care that conflicts with their personal beliefs” to refuse to provide their services without consequences. This means that several states will allow pharmacists to refuse prescriptions for the morning after pill and they may even (in extreme cases) be allowed to refuse care based on a patient’s sexual preference. It also means that they will be able to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions, and in some cases they may even be able refuse some vaccinations.
Doctors opposed to fetal tissue research, for example, could refuse to notify parents that their child was due for a chicken pox inoculation because the vaccine was originally produced using fetal tissue cell cultures, said R. Alto Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin.
“That physician would be immunized from medical malpractice claims and state disciplinary action,” Charo said.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the freedom to believe whatever you want, but I feel that anyone who goes into the field of medicine or pharmaceuticals takes a calculated risk. They may be asked, in the course of their career, to do something that they do not believe is right but that is completely legal, such as filling a birth control prescription or performing selective reduction on a woman pregnant with multiples. They need to assess their comfort levels with such procedures and, if they find that they cannot in good conscience perform such procedures, they may need to find a different profession.
derek Says: