Sandra E Brickell
Extract
I have, however, a question about the implication that the pharmacy assistant was being unprofessional because he let his personal conviction affect the provision of care. I would like to assume for the sake of argument that his personal conviction was that Plan B is unethical because it induces abortion and he is of the opinion that abortion ends a person’s life. By providing Plan B he would be doing something that he genuinely believes is in the best interest of neither his adult client nor her embryo. Wouldn’t it be unprofessional to ignore this conviction and provide the drug anyway? What should a professional do when he is asked to do something by a client that he genuinely believes is not in the client’s best interest? What would a lawyer do?
Brickell SE. (Correspondence) Personal conviction: what role should it play. Can Med Assoc J. 2006;174(8):1134.