'Patient rights' vs 'right of conscience'
Is this just a matter of conscience for the owner or is this just the old American Way:
When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore, reports the Washington Post. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.
The pharmacy is one of a small but growing number of drugstores around the country that have become the latest front in a conflict pitting patients' rights against those of health-care workers who assert a "right of conscience" to refuse to provide care or products that they find objectionable.
Comments (3)
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If DMC Pharmacy does not want/desire the business that the consumer desiring these products; Another one does! That other pharmacy will also get the collateral business these consumers bring in as well. So the loss in sales is not just condoms, birth control pills, or the Plan B emergency contraceptive.
While this pharmacy has the right not to sell these items, the consumer has the right to purchase them and that business will in all likelihood get more of the consumer's business.
Shalom
Posted on June 26, 2008 11:31 AM
Agreed. You shouldn't force a businessman to stock what he doesn't want to sell. Fortunately, there are stores around that do. And in many cases, there's always going to be the Internet if stores become too rare.
Posted on June 26, 2008 12:54 PM
Wow, I'm duly impressed. I couldn’t have said it better myself. (Sorry, I hope I didn’t cause you guys any psycho-emotional harm by saying that.)
Indeed, store owners should have the right to do business as they wish. I remember when this subject arose before, that some of the liberal contributors felt that not selling these products was an infringement of the customers’ right to get required medical treatment – as if the stores were run by some government entitlement department. Thank you for acknowledging the owner’s conscientious objection and right to choose.
Posted on June 29, 2008 2:08 PM