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Do Pharmacists Have a Right to Refuse to Fill Prescriptions for Abortifacient Drugs?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Bruce D. Weinstein
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Extract

Some pharmacists who believe that abortion is immoral are troubled by the thought that they might be required to fill prescriptions for abortifacient drugs like mifepristone. Do pharmacists have the right to refuse to fill such prescriptions?

Questions about the rights of professionals have both moral and legal dimensions. I will assume—although this assumption is by no means axiomatic or uncontested—that the rights and responsibilities of persons in general and professionals in particular ought to be grounded in morality and not the law. For example, a person who breaks the speed limit to bring a critically ill friend to a hospital's emergency room violates the law, but may be morally justified in doing so. There is no legal duty to rescue a person in danger, but many moral communities hold that our moral duty of beneficence requires us to prevent harm to others, at least if in so doing we are not placing ourselves and others at great risk of harm.

Type
Ethical and Legal Issues
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , Fall 1992 , pp. 220 - 223
Copyright
© 1992 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

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References

Engelhardt, Tristram H., The Foundations of Bioethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).Google Scholar
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Weinstein, Bruce D., “Ethical Issues in Pharmacy,” in Brushwood, David and Abood, Richard, Pharmacy Law (forthcoming, Aspen).Google Scholar
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