Let pharmacists dispense medicine, not judgment

Have you ever noticed how a pharmacist has the power to look right into your heart?

Fortunately, mine never seem to pass judgment.

They patiently fill my prescriptions right before closing time, answer my endless questions, calm my anxieties about that long list of side effects I found on the Internet, call my doctor for refills, point out the best over-the-counter remedy for those onions I shouldn’t have eaten the night before and, after all that, take time to smile and chat.

They always seem thoroughly committed to tending to my health – and making sure I walk out the door with the pills I need.

And that’s why I have a hard time imagining any pharmacist refusing to fill legitimate doctors’ orders.

Last week the Washington Pharmacy Board endorsed a draft of a new rule that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription – such as one for emergency contraceptive pills – on moral grounds. It requires them to provide the patient “timely alternatives,” but, especially for women in small towns, even a referral to another pharmacy could be a major barrier.

Pharmacists certainly need to use their professional judgment in fending off meth addicts seeking cases of Sudafed or catching a weary doctor’s dosing error. But turning them into our moral arbiters is a risky path.

These days, a few pharmacists have decided to judge, condemn and even punish anyone whose lifestyle choices – or inadvertent circumstances – don’t match their personal moral code.

That code centers around prescriptions such as the “morning-after” birth-control pill that can prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after intercourse. There are tales of pharmacists not only saying no, but even ripping up the prescription or refusing to give it back.

Follow that absurd logic, and you’ll find there’s no end of punishment a few right-wingers of Rite Aid could choose to exact.

Medical researchers believe many major diseases develop because of lifestyle choices we make.

Do you zip into the drive-through at McDonald’s for a large order of those crispy fries five times a week? Don’t be surprised if in a few years your doctor winds up writing a prescription for Lipitor. Yet a moralistic pharmacist could take one look and refuse to fill it. You made your choice, he or she could sniff. You live with the consequences.

Have you smoked a pack a day for years and only now realized you really, truly need to quit? A pharmacist’s conscience might just say: You made that choice to take the first puff. Don’t ask me to sell you a nicotine patch today.

Have you long ignored your doctor’s advice on diet and exercise, parked yourself in front of endless hours of online solitaire and “American Idol” and now you’re having heart trouble? Don’t turn to a judgmental pharmacist. It’ll be no beta-blockers for you.

The problem with leaving the pill-dispensing up to individual conscience, rather than a shared commitment to serving patients, is that we don’t all share the same conscience. One person’s moral standard is another’s failure.

But there is one aspect of life we all share – our common humanity. We all make mistakes. We all face health risks that derive from poor planning, bad luck or regretful behavior.

So far, the qualms a few pharmacists have expressed relate to one particular group: young, sexually active women.

We haven’t heard of the pharmacist – fully aware of where babies come from – who’s said, “For God’s sake, NO! Enough is enough,” to a man’s umpteenth prescription for the ultimate recreational drug, Viagra.

There’s still a deep strain of prejudice in our culture that lands on sexually active women, not men.

Think pharmacists ought to be our moral arbiters? Consider the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, greed, lust, sloth, gluttony, anger. What might your pharmacist find in your heart?

Pharmacists, those lovely, harried human beings who live behind glass windows, shouldn’t be allowed to throw stones.