Moralistic medicine: fundamentalist pharmacists.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Citings - Brief article

CAN PHARMACIES, stem cell labs, or abortion clinics refuse to hire people who believe their activities are evil? The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doesn't think so. The agency is circulating draft regulations that would outlaw employment discrimination on the grounds of religious and moral beliefs by any entity that receives the department's money.

Since Washington's subsidies are so ubiquitous, the rule would apply even to local pharmacies, because the reds pay for some prescriptions. In effect, the government's money is serving as a Trojan horse for the administration's moral agenda.

The tension between the moral choices of health professionals and the interests of their patients has never been resolved. After Roe v. Wade affirmed a woman's right to obtain an abortion in 1973, Congress quickly passed the Church Amendments, permitting health care providers that receive federal funding to refuse to perform or assist abortions or sterilizations on moral or religious...