Dispensing with Conscience: A Legal and Ethical Assessment

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1669-1678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome R Wernow ◽  
Donald G Grant

Background: For over 30 years, pharmacists have exercised the right to dispense medications in accordance with moral convictions based upon a Judeo-Christian ethic. What many of these practitioners see as an apparent shift away from this time-honored ethic has resulted in a challenge to this right. Objective: To review and analyze pharmacy practice standards, legal proceedings, and ethical principles behind conflicts of conscientious objection in dispensing drugs used for emergency contraception. Data Sources: We first searched the terms conscience and clause and Plan B and contraception and abortion using Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Networks (2006–September 26, 2008). Second, we used Medscape to search professional pharmacy and other medical journals, restricting our terms to conscience, Plan B, contraceptives, and abortifacients. Finally, we employed Loislaw, an online legal archiving service, and did a global search on the phrase conscience clause to determine the status of the legal discussion. Data Synthesis: To date, conflicts in conscientious objection have arisen when a pharmacist believes that dispensing an oral contraceptive violates his or her moral understanding for the promotion of human life. Up to this time, cases in pharmacy have involved only practitioners from orthodox Christian faith communities, primarily devout Roman Catholics. A pharmacist's right to refuse the dispensing of abortifacients for birth control according to moral conscience over against a woman's right to reproductive birth control has created a conflict that has yet to be reconciled by licensing agents, professional standards, or courts of law. Conclusions: Our analysis of prominent conflicts suggests that the underlying worldviews between factions make compromise improbable. Risks and liabilities are dependent upon compliance with evolving state laws, specific disclosure of a pharmacist's moral objections, and professionalism in the handling of volatile situations. Objecting pharmacists and their employers should have clear policies and procedures in place to minimize workplace conflicts and maximize patient care.

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Paço ◽  
Sérgio Deodato

Objective: to discuss conscientious objection in nursing, identifying the ethic and legal basis for this decision-making. Methodology: qualitative study in which the methodology used was ethical reflection based on a legal analysis of the laws in question, proceeding to a bibliographical and documentary research Conclusions: Portuguese law and ethical pillars that form the basis of the Code of Ethics of nurses in Portugal defend the freedom of conscience as a professional practice. However, the obligation to protect human life, which imposes the need for coordination between this protection and the exercise of the right to conscientious objection on the part of the nurse, is also clear.


2010 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio G. Spagnolo ◽  
Marina Casini ◽  
Fabio Persano ◽  
Emma Traisci

Traendo occasione dal sessantesimo compleanno di Medicina e Morale, il presente contributo ripercorre il tema dell’obiezione di coscienza come si è venuto sviluppando sulla rivista nel corso degli anni. L’articolo analizza il fondamento dell’obiezione di coscienza, ribadendo che esso non è solo l’autonomia del singolo e non ha un aspetto meramente soggettivo, ma si rintraccia nel principio di rilevanza, ovvero nella ragione stessa dell’ordinamento, che è la tutela della vita umana; viene sottolineata la trasversalità del tema, visto che esso si aggancia a numerosi e differenti temi di bioetica, quali l’aborto, la procreazione assistita, la contraccezione, la pillola del giorno dopo, il testamento biologico e le tematiche di fine vita. Sono esaminate sinteticamente le numerose idee che sono state proposte dai vari autori nel corso delle pubblicazioni comparse su Medicina e Morale. ---------- The Authors discuss about the conscientious objection as this review developed this theme since 1970. The paper examines the conscientious objection foundation, confirming that it consists not only in autonomy of the persons, but also in the protection of the right to human life. The report draws attention to transversal theme of conscientions objection, becouse it correlates with several and various bioethics theme, as abortion, artificial fertilization, contraception, morning-after pill, living will and the end of life. The report examines shortly also ideas suggested by Authors during the publication on this review.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Fatima Hasan

Indeed, in terms of the whole implementation of life has been arranged in the view of Islamic teachings to regulate all human life including in relation to the implementation of the economy and business. Islam does not allow any person to work haphazardly to achieve his/her goals and desires by justifying any means such as committing fraud, cheating, false vows, usury, and any other vanity deeds. But, Islam has given a boundary or line between the allowable and the unlawful, the right and wrong and the lawful and the unlawful. These limits or dividing lines are known as ethics. Behavior in business or trade is also not escaped from the moral value or business ethics values. Islamic business ethics is of which adheres to the principle of unity, equilibrium principle, freewill principle, responsibility principle, It is important for business people to integrate that ethical dimension into the framework or scope of the business. Keyword: Ethics, Business Ethics, Islamic Business Ethic.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Escotet Espinoza

UNSTRUCTURED Over half of Americans report looking up health-related questions on the internet, including questions regarding their own ailments. The internet, in its vastness of information, provides a platform for patients to understand how to seek help and understand their condition. In most cases, this search for knowledge serves as a starting point to gather evidence that leads to a doctor’s appointment. However, in some cases, the person looking for information ends up tangled in an information web that perpetuates anxiety and further searches, without leading to a doctor’s appointment. The Internet can provide helpful and useful information; however, it can also be a tool for self-misdiagnosis. Said person craves the instant gratification the Internet provides when ‘googling’ – something one does not receive when having to wait for a doctor’s appointment or test results. Nevertheless, the Internet gives that instant response we demand in those moments of desperation. Cyberchondria, a term that has entered the medical lexicon in the 21st century after the advent of the internet, refers to the unfounded escalation of people’s concerns about their symptomatology based on search results and literature online. ‘Cyberchondriacs’ experience mistrust of medical experts, compulsion, reassurance seeking, and excessiveness. Their excessive online research about health can also be associated with unnecessary medical expenses, which primarily arise from anxiety, increased psychological distress, and worry. This vicious cycle of searching information and trying to explain current ailments derives into a quest for associating symptoms to diseases and further experiencing the other symptoms of said disease. This psychiatric disorder, known as somatization, was first introduced to the DSM-III in the 1980s. Somatization is a psycho-biological disorder where physical symptoms occur without any palpable organic cause. It is a disorder that has been renamed, discounted, and misdiagnosed from the beginning of the DSMs. Somatization triggers span many mental, emotional, and cultural aspects of human life. Our environment and social experiences can lay the blueprint for disorders to develop over time; an idea that is widely accepted for underlying psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. The research is going in the right direction by exploring brain regions but needs to be expanded on from a sociocultural perspective. In this work, we explore the relationship between somatization disorder and the condition known as cyberchondria. First, we provide a background on each of the disorders, including their history and psychological perspective. Second, we proceed to explain the relationship between the two disorders, followed by a discussion on how this relationship has been studied in the scientific literature. Thirdly, we explain the problem that the relationship between these two disorders creates in society. Lastly, we propose a set of intervention aids and helpful resource prototypes that aim at resolving the problem. The proposed solutions ranged from a site-specific clinic teaching about cyberchondria to a digital design-coded chrome extension available to the public.


Pharmacy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Matthew Deneff ◽  
Lisa M. Holle ◽  
Jill M. Fitzgerald ◽  
Kathryn Wheeler

Pharmacy law instruction is often taught as a didactic course; however practical application of pharmacy law is a main component of pharmacy practice. Technology-based simulations are becoming more frequently used to enhance didactic pharmacy education. The goal of this study was to evaluate the utility of and student perceptions on the usefulness of MyDispense community pharmacy simulation for additional law instruction that if successful might prompt curricular revamping. This Institutional Review Board–approved, two-year, qualitative, prospective, survey study was conducted in a case study class where students completed MyDispense exercises focused on common legal issues that arise in practice, both individually before and within groups during class. Participating students completed a qualitative survey directed at use of MyDispense for pharmacy law review, which included a series of close-ended questions graded on a Likert scale and open-ended questions thematically grouped. Thirty-eight (41%) and twenty-eight (31%) students completed surveys in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The majority of respondents felt exercises improved their understanding of pharmacy laws, focused on challenging areas, and were more interesting than additional lectures. However, certain topics were reported as irrelevant based on practice experiences or not ideal for simulation, and students desired exercises on state laws versus pharmacy policies. Students reported the MyDispense simulation exercises helped them to recall pharmacy laws and focus on topics that were challenging. These study results prompted curricular revamping to incorporate MyDispense throughout the curriculum for practice in recognizing and solving legal scenarios, along with didactic course changes.


Author(s):  
Keren Dopelt ◽  
Dganit Cohen ◽  
Einat Amar-Krispel ◽  
Nadav Davidovitch ◽  
Paul Barach

The demand for medical assistance in dying remains high and controversial with a large knowledge gap to support optimal patient care. The study aimed to explore physicians’ attitudes regarding euthanasia and examine the factors that related to these attitudes. We surveyed 135 physicians working at a tertiary-care hospital in Israel. The questionnaire was comprised of demographic and background information, DNR procedure information, encounters with terminally ill patients, familiarity with the law regarding end-of-life questions, and Attitudes toward Euthanasia. About 61% agreed that a person has the right to decide whether to expedite their own death, 54% agreed that euthanasia should be allowed, while 29% thought that physicians should preserve a patients’ life even when they expressed the wish to die. A negative statistically significant relationship was found between the level of religiosity and attitudes toward euthanasia. The physicians’ attitudes towards euthanasia are quite positive when compared to other countries. The data shows a conflict of values: the sacredness of human life versus the desire to alleviate patients’ suffering. The Coronavirus-19 outbreak reinforces the importance of supporting physicians’ efforts to provide ethical and empathic communication for terminally ill patients. Future studies should aim to improve our understanding and treatment of the specific types of suffering that lead to end-of-life requests.


2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-517
Author(s):  
Irini Renieri

This article explores household formation among the Greek Orthodox population of a mixed village of Cappadocia inhabited by Muslims, as well. The village, Çukur, was located on the right bank of the river Kızılırmak, 49 kilometers north–northwest of Kayseri.1 I aim to show that complex forms of household formation were the main type of social organization and were especially durable over time, with a high average household membership. I attempt to clarify whether the predominance of extended households—which, as other studies have shown, is not that common in the Asian portion of the Ottoman Empire—was related to the Christian character of this section of the Çukur population, or whether the agricultural basis of the village economy played a more important role.


Author(s):  
Olha Peresada ◽  

The article considers topical issues of definition and qualification of crimes against human life in Ukraine and abroad. It is proved that the problematic issue of criminal law protection of human life is a significant differentiation of approaches to determining the moment of its onset, which reflects the medical and social criteria for the formation of an individual who has the right to life. It is shown that Ukrainian criminal law gives a person the right to life from birth, while the correct approach is to recognize the beginning of human life and appropriate criminal protection from the moment of onset 10 days after conception, which is consistent with European experience (in particular, France) and sufficiently reflects the medical features of the period of formation of a full-fledged embryo. The article also addresses the issue of the fact that Section II of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine combines encroachment on two different generic objects - public relations for the protection of life and public relations for the protection of personal health. This provision of the criminal law of Ukraine does not correspond to the international practice on this issue. In addition, it is reasonable to believe that the two relevant categories of the object of criminal encroachment cannot be considered similar, as such an approach in certain cases can significantly complicate the classification of a criminal offense. It is emphasized that, given the exceptional importance of criminal law protection of human life, it is necessary to formulate a separate section of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which covers only crimes against life as the main object of criminal encroachment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Michelle Kristina

The development of human life nowadays cannot be separated from various aspects such as economy, politics, and technology, including the impact of the coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19 or SARS-CoV-2) which emerged at the end of 2019. Responding to this Covid-19 pandemic outbreak In Indonesia, the government has issued various policies as measures to prevent and handle the spread of Covid-19. One of these policies is to limit community activities. These restrictions have implications for the fulfilment of the economic needs of the affected communities. Responding to the urgency of this community's economic situation, the government held a social assistance program as a measure to ease the community's economic burden. However, the procurement of the program was used as a chance for corruption involving the Ministry of Social Affairs and corporations as the winning bidders. This study uses a qualitative methodology with a normative juridical approach and literature. The approach is carried out by conducting a juridical analysis based on a case approach. The results of the study show that the corporations involved cannot be separated from corporate responsibility. However, the criminal liability process against the corporation is deemed not to reflect justice for the current situation of Indonesia is experiencing. The crime was not carried out in a normal situation but in a situation when Indonesia was trying hard to overcome the urgent situation, the Covid-19 pandemic. Corporate crimes committed by taking advantage of the pandemic situation are deemed necessary to prioritize special action or the weight of criminal acts committed by corporations. The weighting of criminal sanction is the right step as a law enforcement process for corporate crimes during the pandemic.


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