Equal Moral Rights For All?

Around the country they’re debating the “moral right” of doctors to refuse certain kinds of care, and the same right of pharmacists to do the same thing when it comes to filling prescriptions. But the whole question here strikes me as kind of silly.

I mean, if you’re a pacifist, it’s obvious you shouldn’t join the Armed Forces where you might be called upon to kill somone. If you’ve set your heart on being a trapeze artist, it’s equally clear you shouldn’t be afraid of heights. So why should a doctor get into medicine if he/she doesn’t want to give all legal treatments? And why should a pharmacist think he/she should be in that profession if filling all legal prescriptions isn’t to their taste?

In thinking this matter over at greater length, I even began to wonder why this supposed right, if it actually exists, should only apply to a few professional categories. Why not give others the same rights if you give them to doctors and pharmacists? Are doctors and pharmacists more moral than other people? In a country such as ours, if some groups have moral rights, why not moral rights for all?

Take a drug store cashier, for example. A pharmacist gives you your morning after pills, but the person at the cash register doesn’t approve of you taking these meds. Or buying condoms either for that matter. Should these folks have the same moral-based veto rights as the pill filler? Or you go into a department store to buy a girly undergarment for Mr. Right, but Mr. Moral at the register doesn’t approve of such immodesty and tells you to buy something else.

And how about the bagger at the supermarket who doesn’t like your purchase of meat because he’s a vegan. Or the guy at the liquor store who might, just might, let you get away with a six pack of Millers if he’s in the right moral mood, but draws the moral line at selling Powerball tickets because of a moral objection to gambling.

Some might say that states can single out moral rights for doctors and pharmacists because these people are licensed by the state. By so are plumbers and scores of other professionals and tradespeople who might come forward with their own varied moral arguments against providing services to certain groups of people.

Gimme a break. I won’t shove my moral sensibilities down your throat if you don’t do the shoving down mine. Do the job you’re licensed to do, or simply hired to do. And if it goes against your moral grain, get a different job. I go to a medical facility, a drug store, and a great many other places to have my own wants and needs serviced, not to burnish someone else’s sense of moral superiority.