Conscientious objectors in the workplace…
Swimming against the tide.
In retrospect, I realize I’ve always been something of a conscientious objector in the workplace. I had real problems with being required to show up for work every day, and I very often disagreed with employment policies and management decisions concerning compensation issues, personal time off, and so on.
But seriously, my jocular objections are not the same thing as a pharmacist refusing to dispense birth control, or a nurse refusing to assist in an abortion, or a young man or woman refusing to participate in studies or research which goes against Catholic teaching.
Most of us usually think of a conscientious objector as a person who refuses to go to war. Such people rarely win the respect of authorities or fellow citizens. Today conscientious objectors are frequently found emerging in the workplace, and I doubt they are lauded as heroes like a Norma Rae, Karen Silkwood, or Erin Brokovitch. Simply because their causes are so politically incorrect.
“Benedict XVI has recently recalled that pharmacists have the duty of engaging in conscientious objection.”- Zenit
For instance, how dare a pharmacist refuse to dispense a morning-after pill, or basic birth control? And it is not the sales clerk’s business to refuse to sell a condom or a pornographic video. He is there to work for the company, not dictate morality. Conscientious objectors like these may share a certain similarity with their movie heroine counterparts, except for the fact their conscientious objection is usually an affront to the popular mindset. Many in our culture see no problem with such things as contraception, abortion, along with the other “Catholic guilt trips” the “imperial power structure of the Church imposes“. (These are secularist terms, not mine.)
See how that works? Conscientious objectors will receive no respect from a society without a conscience. Which may be why priests, bishops, and the Pope have been talking about a “green martyrdom“ as well as “concientious objectors” more frequently and with increasing urgency these days.
Something to think about.
Source: Zenit: “More Conscientious Objection Encouragd“
November 7th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
I’ve been wondering what Catholic universities are doing in their pharmacy programs—do they tell the students about Humane Vitae?
I hope so.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
It’s tough to be a good Catholic (or even a good Christian) these days if you work in the health care professions. I know several Catholic pharmicists, all of whom have agonized over these issues. One of them has opted to work the night shift in a hospital, in a department where the question of dispensing birth control would not come up. Another works in retail, and so far her manager is supporting her conscientious objection (but schedules her to work when there is a non-objector on duty to dispense birth control.) Some pharmacists make a distinction between an IUD, which is always an abortifacient, and a condom, which is a barrier only; saying that using the latter is a personal sin which doesn’t impact an innocent third party. That still leaves the problem of the various versions of the pill.
Will we get to the point where conscientious people will not longer want to go into a profession where there are so many moral mine fields; and the only ones left will be those who could care less about morality? Scary thought.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:42 am
I don’t prescribe contraception, refer for abortion or sterilization. I also don’t prescribe Viagra and the like to unmarried men. And yes - it was VERY difficult for me to find a job. I’m shocked every day that I still have a job. The day will probably come that I’ll be out of my job and will lost my license due to my increasingly counter cultural practice of medicine. Anyway - we must not let this dissuade us from health care professions. The world needs our witness lest the light go out and there be NO resistance to death medicine.
There’s much more to the practice of “Catholic medicine” than not doing things. Its the post-abortive woman that is referred to Project Rachel. Its the teenager NOT educated in “safe sex” but rather challenged to abstinence. Its the crying woman separated from her husband who you gently encourage to pray, talk to her priest, seek the sacraments and NOT divorce. Its the referral to those who teach natural family planning. Its referring homosexuals who come in for STD testing to mental health care. Its so much more than most realize.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Sanctus Belle: referring homosexuals to mental health care?!
November 8th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
The philosophical question is difficult. I wouldn’t do an abortion, that’s easy. But should the taxi driver decline to drive a woman to an abortion clinic, the city employee refuse to fix the sewer pipe that goes to the abortion clinic, … should I pay my taxes knowing some of it will go to awful things, like shooting people.
Difficult questions.