In this country, however, they are not entitled nor allowed to force their religious beliefs on other people and to try to do so subjects everyone to something akin to religious persecution.
The Pope's approach is problematic in that it also opens the door for other religious leaders to try and insert their religious beliefs into the ultimately personal and private business of someone's medical decisions, choices and what should be the privacy of their medicine cabinet.
The Vatican objects to drugs that prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. The so-called 'morning after pill' prevents conception, which in turn reduces the number of unplanned pregnancies, which in theory should lead to fewer abortions. Regardless of how illogical the Vatican's objection to these drugs is, it's not right for the beliefs of one segment of this country to be foisted on everyone.
Do we want other religious leaders who feel life-saving drugs such as diabetes, cancer, blood pressure or cholesterol drugs are immoral, for whatever reason, trying to dictate our own personal health choices and our own private medical decisions? Because God, rather than humans, should determine how long someone lives.
Because critical pain-relieving remedies can be abused by addicts or used by others to end their lives, do we want to deny everyone their benefits? Is that reasonable?
Surely we can come up with ways to allow people to make their own private medical decisions without being told their choices offend their pharmacist's morality. Asking pharmacists to mix their private belief system with their professional responsibilities is neither fair nor equitable.
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