Bioethics Essay: “The Pope Speaks to Pharmacists (and Connecticut?)”

Welcome to this week's installment of my ongoing essay series about contemporary bioethics issues. As always, constructive feedback is welcome. Here is a list of the previous topics I've treated so far:

• "Long-Term Complications for Premature Infants" (Oct. 22)
• “The Evil Effects of Legalizing Euthanasia” (Oct. 10)
• “The Moral Implications of Artificial Wombs” (Oct. 1)
• “Mandatory Organ Donation Initiatives” (Sep. 26)
• “Human-Animal Hybrids and the Catholic Response” (Sep. 20)

This week's topic:

“The Pope Speaks to Pharmacists (and Connecticut?)”

[In follow-up to this post.]

On Monday, October 29th, Pope Benedict addressed the 25th international congress of Catholic pharmacists who were in Rome to discuss the theme “the new frontiers of pharmaceutical activity.” In his speech, Pope Benedict re-affirmed three principles of Catholic medical moral theology that were recently challenged by new legislation in Connecticut:

1) In the English VIS bulletin, the Pope is quoted as saying that pharmacists must not “collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia.” Elsewhere in the French version of the text, the Pope uses the phrase “la nidation d’un embryon” – literally, “the nidation of an embryo” (emphasis added). Nidation is a technical medical term which means “Implantation of the conceptus in the endometrium.”[1] The Italian text of the sentence reads “l'annidamento di un embrione” – again, “the nidation of an embryo.” The pope’s precise word use is significant because many commonly-proscribed “contraceptives” in fact act abortifaciently by preventing the nidation of an already-conceived embryo. Plan B is one of the drugs widely-believed to act abortifaciently by preventing nidation. Hospitals in Connecticut have recently been forced to proscribe Plan B to female victims of rape without an ovulation test.

2) Pope Benedict says that pharmacists have a “right” to conscientiously object in situations where they are asked to collaborate in supplying products which have immoral purposes such as abortion (including anti-nidation) or euthanasia. The recent legislation passed in Connecticut allows no such exemption for conscientious objection. Pharmacists must dispense the Plan B medication to all victims of rape regardless of whether they have undergone an ovulation test and so – presumably – in these cases Plan B might act abortifaciently instead of contraceptively. Here again, the Pope is reaffirming general principles of Catholic medical moral theology which have recently been directly challenged by this particular legislation.

3) Pope Benedict states that one of the duties of pharmacists is to fulfill their obligation of educating patients about “the correct use of medications” as well as by informing them of “the ethical implications of the use of particular drugs.” While at first glance this admonition might strike one as a logical accompaniment to the Pope’s main thesis, the fact that it is explicitly stated anyway could be significant because the Connecticut legislation also violates this principle. In what seems like a paradoxical legal precedent, caregivers of women who have been raped are not allowed the full testing and council that medicine has to offer. Instead, priority of place is given to the administration of Plan B to the point that it may be administered when it could have no tangible effect (contraceptive or abortifacient). In such cases, a placebo would be as effective in alleviating psychological trauma. Furthermore, the high concentration of chemicals present in Plan B, from an objective standpoint, is a needless treatment in cases where the dosage can have no effect in preventing or terminating a pregnancy.

Pope Benedict further demonstrates in his speech that he is aware that medical decisions made by pharmacists do not exist in a moral or cultural vacuum. He concludes that “The biomedical sciences are at the service of man… Were it otherwise they would be cold and inhuman. All scientific knowledge in the field of healthcare ... is at the service of sick human beings, considered in their entirety, who must have an active role in their cure and whose autonomy must be respected.” Pope Benedict has provided in his speech to Pharmacists a comprehensive and pastoral vision of medical health care which also explains what properly inspires Catholic medical treatments. +++