Rant in a hat...

[pfloyd]

Time for a Rant...

Actually, there's more than one here, so it gets its own post.

This one goes out to all the folks who are bickering over Ms Schiavo down in Florida.
I do not feel sorry for any of you folks whatsoever.
Why?
It's because of you people that lives in that area, lives of people who have absolutely sod all to do with this news-hogging story, are being disrupted, because you people can't be civil.
Let's take a look at the people about whom I feel sorry.
I feel sorry for the 750+ kids in the school next to the hospice. Because of the violence that took place over the weekend, these kids have to be split up and shuttled to schools across the city, disrupting their daily educational routine. Good on you.
I feel sorry for the other patients who reside at the hospice in front of which you people gather, chant, and blather on into microphones. Don't you think these people deserve some peace and quiet? How about some of that diginity and comfort that they desire in an end-of-life situation? Would you want the same? Good on you.
I feel sorry for anyone who happens to live and/or work in that area, and have to deal with the throngs of people that are gathering, disrupting the normal, everyday flow of life in that area. You're certainly making an impact that's changing people's minds about you folks... and I don't think it's in your direction. Good on you.
Here's the thing. I respect your drive for upholding your convictions. I just don't respect the manner in which you're showing them. True, this is a sad time for both sides of the family, and while the fight on both sides is admirable, it just doesn't matter in the whole scheme of things. Perhaps you should take a step back, put yourself in her position, and think about what you would want. And when I say position, I don't mean the one that you think is happening, I'm talking about stone cold reality here. But then again, when have the religious right ever truly faced reality?


Now this one is dedicated to the unsung heroes in the medical field -- the pharmacist.
My good friend skyglider is from Canada, and so she has already taken a few steps back (over the border) to take a look at how her friends south of the border are behaving themselves.
Recently, she posted a link to an article about how some pharmacists aren't doing their jobs, as they're letting their own religious morals take over, and will not under any circumstances dish out birth control pills.
Excuse me, yes you there, in the white coat behind the counter. What gives you the right to say what you can and can't do in your job? There are only a handful of professions and career paths out there that walk hand in hand with religion. Pumping out medication in plastic bottles isn't one of them. Who are you to judge who gets their scrips filled and who doesn't?
You say that the pill is akin to abortion. Um, doesn't abortion have to happen to a fetus? When was the last time that an ovary pumped out a blastocyst? If this is your way of thinking, that slowing or halting the release of an unfertilized egg, or somehow making the egg impervious to fertilization (I'm not entire sure on how the pills work, bear with me here) is the same as halting the progress of a fetus (which, in your argument would be after conception, right?), then by that logic, perhaps all the women across the world should be locked up for being the worst mass murderers in history.
And let's take a look at the other reasons why the pill may be prescribed. One is to regulate a woman's monthly visitor. Another reason actually comes from a side effect of the pill -- dermatological reasons. Yep, the pill can help clear up your skin.
Haven't thought of that, have you?
Nope, didn't think so.
If you prevent women from getting the pill from your pharmacy, then you better stop stocking those boxes of Trojans and Durex behind the counter, too.
What really irks me about this situation is that not all the pharmacists who perform this act are being disciplined, even after complaints. Yeah okay, you won't fill my prescription, and you won't tell me who will. Fine, give me back my slip and I'll hunt one down.
Actually, I think the article even stated that the scrip slips aren't given back to the customers, even destroyed, forcing the patient to go back to the doctor's office to get a new scrip written up.
Now the larger pharmacy chains are trying their best to maintain a balance between the rights of the pharmacist and the rights of the patient. Okay, fine, how are you planning to do this? Pay to have another pharmacist or body behind the counter who will dole out the medication? Most pharmacies have techs who can dispense meds already. Get them to do it. What does it take? Putting prepackaged meds into a bag and printing up a slip. Two minutes. You can't set your beliefs aside for your job for two whole minutes. Bloody marvelous.
I know, you're about to say, "I don't tell you how to do your job, don't tell me mine." Okay, fine. Be that way. I just won't come to you for any sort of advice or scrips.
I'm just wondering what the next medication these people won't dish out. I'm waiting to hear this one. If it's one I take for anything, I'll be at the front of the protests.
Religion is such a hassle, innit?
Said it before, I applaud your steadfast hold on your convictions and beliefs. Please don't force them on me.

Rants over.

Comments

[lawful-evil.livejournal.com]

My impression of how the pill works is to actually block implantation. That is... eggs can get fertilized, but they can not attach to the uterus lining.

I actually think that pharmacists, like any business, can choose to sell whatever products they like. If the choose not to stock 'the pill', then they don't stock it or sell it. Easy enough.

My problem with the situation is the pharmacists who, in addition to not filling the precription, take your scrip away from you and refuse to return it.

[pfloyd.livejournal.com]

All well and good if, as the pharmacist, you own your own business and can practice that.
However, it's the pharmacists in the chain stores that have to answer to a higher authority, and I'm not talking about the Invisible Man in the Sky, either, who says what can and can't be sold, and how his employees are supposed to go on about their business.

With these private businesses, though, if they choose not to stock and/or sell the pill, then they better take a long hard look at some of their other products as well. I would find it funny if they banned the pill in their place of business, but you can find Trojans for sale behind the counter.

[skyglider.livejournal.com]

Do all pharmacies carry condoms behind the counter? At drug stores here, they're on the shelves where anyone can get them without asking.

[pfloyd.livejournal.com]

Okay, behind the counter or in the aisle. Guess it depends on where you go shopping for them. However, they always seem to be quite near the pharmacy...

[skyglider.livejournal.com]

it varies in drug stores here. sometimes they're at the end of an aisle close to the pharmacy, other times it's halfway down an aisle. I just wasn't sure if there was still a "gatekeeper" to go through in order to get them.

[skyglider.livejournal.com]

Actually, the pill fools the body into thinking it's pregnant already. Eggs are not released (ideally) and there is nothing to fertilize. Then the lining of the uterus is shed once a month by a gap in the pills, rather than a constant level of hormones during a pregnancy.

There are some forms of birth control that eliminate the monthly cycle completely and women don't have a period at all, like the birth control injection and some forms of pills.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/sfeature/sf_cycle_text.html