[johniegrad]

Above all things we need to be kind.

I agree with you. We do need to be kind. But not above all things.

While we don’t have all the details of this story, it is possible that the pharmacist may have been objecting to this prescription on moral grounds. From one ethical perspective, taking medications to alter ones appearance to become more female-like is immoral because it is intentionally interfering with the functioning of normally functioning organs where there is no disease process. In that case, even though the pharmacist is not the one taking the drug, he may be cooperating in an evil by his role in filling the prescription. His decision to NOT cooperate is the exercise of his conscience rights to refuse to do harm.

Now, having said this, the place to have worked this out is not in front of the patient but with the employer in advance of any such interactions. If the employer did not respect the pharmacist’s conscience rights, then the pharmacist would need to seek a different employer who did rather than commit the immoral act.

You are correct. It is important to always be kind. But it is more important to be moral and kind. One is not being kind by participating in a morally repugnant act of self mutilation.

[Flaming Conservative]

You are correct. It is important to always be kind. But it is more important to be moral and kind. One is not being kind by participating in a morally repugnant act of self mutilation.

---

If a pharmacist doesn’t want to do things that are morally repugnant to him, (for instance, he’s a devout Catholic who does not believe in birth control), he may have chosen the wrong profession. As a nurse, I was required to provide care for Aids patients, as well as patients who were pregnant, but unmarried, etc. So, was I supposed to refuse to care for patients with who’s lifestyle I disagreed? On the other hand, I applied for a job at the health department, once, but was not hired, because the manager did not think I could, with any confidence, support a decision by a pregnant patient, if she decided to have an abortion. (It was for a program for young unwed mothers). I agreed, that I would NOT have been comfortable doing that, and wouldn’t have taken the job, if they’d offered it to me. (And it was a pud job -— 4 weeks vacation, they put $2 for every $1 you invested in retirement, no weekends, no holidays. A State job) But I couldn’t take it.