Reuters, October 31, 2007
Druggists criticize pope's appeal
Urged refusal for morning-after pill.
By Philip Pullella, Reuters
VATICAN CITY - Politicians and pharmacists in Italy responded angrily yesterday to an appeal by Pope Benedict for pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs such as the "morning-after pill" if they object on moral grounds.
The pope told an international conference on Monday that pharmacists should be guaranteed the right to conscientious objection in cases where medicines they distribute can block pregnancy, provoke abortion or assist euthanasia.
Health Minister Livia Turco said that while the pope has the right to urge young people to be sexually responsible, he could not tell professionals such as pharmacists what to do.
"I don't think his warning to pharmacists to be conscientious objectors to the morning-after pill should be taken into consideration," she told a daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera.
Benedict did not mention any specific drugs but appeared to refer to the morning-after pill, which can stop ovulation if taken within about 72 hours of sexual intercourse. It is available only by doctor's prescription in Italy. Another medicine fitting his description is RU-486, the so-called abortion pill, which is available on an experimental basis in some Italian hospitals. It blocks the action of hormones needed to keep a fertilized egg implanted in the uterus.
Franco Caprino, head of a professional group, Federfarma, said that by law pharmacists had to distribute medicine prescribed by a doctor.
"We can't be conscientious objectors unless the law is changed," he said.
While some politicians defended the pope's right to speak his mind and the right of pharmacists to be conscientious objectors, others criticized him.
"The pope's appeal to pharmacists to refuse to sell the morning-after pill is a very heavy interference in politics and Italian life," said Senator Lidia Menapace, a member of the Communist Refoundation party.
The Catholic Church teaches that artificial birth control, abortion and euthanasia are wrong, with life starting at conception and ending at natural death.