jallman

Actually, it does. If your assessment were true, then a license to sell beer would be a license to sell pharmaceuticals, too. They are totally different classes, most notably that one is for recreation and the other is for medical purposes.

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Hatuey

This is a business decision. If they don't want to sell birth control then thats their prerogative. It's ridiculous. But I support their right to have a choice and the right to exercise said choice. Now if only they would extend the same courtesy to women.

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prometeus

While a pharmacy is a private business it is a "special" private business, licensed and regulated. A person's well being can depend on a pharmacy but not an oil change facility. In a large city where there is a pharmacy "just around the next corner" this becomes moot, but not right, but in some isolated rural environment it can make a major difference. Again, if a person so strongly feels about certain aspects of life, then morality, their motivating factor, should dictate that they NOT engage in the type of public service where a person's well being can depend on their morality, a public service where the public's needs are secondary to their the provider's morality.

I wonder if that holds true for liquor store owners or gun shop owners? How about cutlery stores? Are they enabling stabbings, shootings, alcoholism, etc. etc.?

prometeus

Perhaps you did not notice that it is NOT a certain brand that the pharmacy does not sell, but AN ENTIRE LINE. So while a bar may not sell every kind of beer, it WILL sell the ones that the customers want to drink, that not being the case with the pharmacy.

Hatuey

Are you suggesting that a company has to sell a line of products it doesn't want to sell? This is a business decision. If you don't like it, you aren't forced to buy there. Matter of fact I bet you don't even have to walk by the store. There are a million other routes you can take and a trillion other mom and pops you can go to where they'll sell you everything from condoms to strawberry flavored lubricant.

prometeus

No, I am suggesting that a pharmacy who's purpose is to serve the well being of the public and is licensed to do so, do so by carrying the products that ensure the well being of the public it is supposed to serve and not deprive the public based on their own morality. As mentioned in the previous post, the issue is moot, but still not right, in a large metropolitan area where a pharmacy can be found around any corner, but in rural areas can make a crucial difference. Where does it stop, what is next?

Hatuey

And if the pharmacy was run by THE GOVERNMENT then you'd have a point. But considering the pharmacies in question are owned and run by PRIVATE BUSINESS then you do not.

A pharmacy is first and foremost a business what they CHOOSE to do with THEIR BUSINESS & customers is their prerogative.

It is a right of any business to sell whatever product they want regardless of where they are. Where it stops is wherever they want.

prometeus

Clearly we have different views on what health care is. You view it as a business, I as a public service and a societal obligation. The state of health care in the US reflects beyond a doubt which position is better. No further need to argue this.

rathi

Hatuey, pharmacies receive special government licenses to sell their products. They are required to serve public health first and business second. In America, the medical industry is designed to insure the health the person first and profit second. That is the reason hospitals are unable to turn away people in serious conditions, even if it costs them. The government has every right to terminate the license of someone who is not fulfilling their duty as medical service providers. Healthcare is not capable of being a free-market and regulation is required.

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Jerry

The purpose of a private pharmacy is to make profit, not serve the public. Therefore, if a private owner feels that this is an equitable marketing ploy, so be it. If falls flat on it's face, so be it.

Where does it stop? Could you articulate your Slippory-Slope in more deatail so that I know exactly what your asking please?

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