- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 2
-
Sparkle (0)
Further, it is part of a nurse's job to care for their patients no matter what they're in for. And it is the responsibility of doctors to provide care for their patients within the scope of their specialty. But more and more, medical professionals are refusing to do their jobs because of their personal, moral and/or religious beliefs.
And I've been really confused by this, because I was raised by a conservative.
I was taught not to expect the world to bend to my will, not to ask for favors or special exceptions. The way I was raised, in a conservative household, was to take personal responsibility for myself and my beliefs. So if I had a personal, moral and/or religious problem with the job requirements of say, a pharmacist, then I should choose not to be a pharmacist. I should respect my beliefs by pursuing a career in line with them.
You go to school for quite a while to be a pharmacist, or a doctor, or a nurse. It's clear what the job requirements are. It would be ridiculous - in a whiny, "liberal" sort of way according to my upbringing - to train to do a job and then refuse to do the job requirements that were clear up front. To expect special exceptions.
When I'm a television director, if I get assigned an episode that morally offends me so much that I can't do my job, I can certainly choose to walk away from the gig, but you better believe no one's going to change the episode to suit me or pay me for work not done (or call me again). I can choose make the difficult call, but the career sacrifice is part and parcel of that decision.
Disabled people who are physically unable to navigate and work a construction site can't demand construction jobs even when they can't complete the job requirements. Pharmacists who are personally, morally and/or religiously unable to fill prescriptions for birth control can't demand pharmacy jobs even when they can't complete the job requirements.
The Bush Administration, however, is looking to make Federal funding dependent on certification that you will not refuse to hire medical professionals who are unable to fulfill job requirements. Screw you, medical business owners! We'll tell you who you can and can not hire, job requirements be damned!
Think of the effect on small pharmacy owners! To be forced to hire someone who can not fully perform job requirements! A pharmacy owner in this situation might ultimately lose (or choose to close) their business. True conservatives must be appalled.
When I think about what the Bush Administration is proposing, I feel like I'm in some sort of bizarro world where conservatives have thrown their convictions about personal responsibility and capitalism into the garbage. It's just so foreign to the conservative principles I was taught growing up. Embarrassing even.
Of course, it gets worse. The New York Times reports that the proposal defines abortion as “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”
Target: birth control. Target: emergency contraception. Clearly.
Not to mention the slid-in phrasing that defines human life as beginning at conception. Guess we're throwing science out with the capitalist bath water.
Personally, I think human life begins at the moment of birth. I'm not a scientist, or a law-maker, and you certainly don't have to agree with me, but if you're a pharmacist, you do have fill my prescriptions.
And if you can't do your job, take some personal responsibility and find another one.
Please note: I hate to post and run, but as this post goes up, I am off to BlogHer first thing in the morning. I will respond to comments as I can, but it's gonna be spotty.
~
The blogosphere speaks:
Juno Lied - From Aly on Feministing Community comes an annoying tale of a store clerk in New Jersey who decides to refuse to sell two teenagers a pregnancy test. In New Jersey. I was shocked.
Can We Refuse The Parts Of Our Jobs We Don’t Like? -The Office Newb wonders what's next.
From College Candy, Sady blogs Plan B (And C, and D, and So On): EC Chronicles, Part One and Thank God I’m On The Pill: EC Chronicles, Part II
I read a powerful post on
