Testimony of Pharmacist Re: Wisconsin Assembly Bill 63
Before the Assembly Labour Committee, 5 March, 2003
Neil Noesen, R.Ph.
Wisconsin license #13021-40
As a pharmacist
highly dedicated to the advancement of the
profession of pharmacy practice, I express my strong
support for Representative Owen's
Assembly Bill 63.
I am a native born Wisconsinite, a University of
Wisconsin - Madison graduate, and a proud holder of
a license to practice pharmacy in the state of
Wisconsin.
With a license to
practice pharmacy in the state of Wisconsin, I have
been allowed the great privilege to offer
pharmaceutical care for the sick. This great
privilege comes with great responsibility. I take my
responsibility to care, my duty to care, very
seriously.
This sense of duty
is shared amongst all of us Wisconsin pharmacists.
We first have the duty to do no harm. Then, the duty
to do good. Finally, there remains an ethical
imperative for the recognition of the individual
autonomy of the patient as well as the recognition
of the professional autonomy of the practitioner.
Just as it is
unethical for us to force our patients who are
adults to adhere to a drug regimen, so is it also
unethical to force practitioners to participate in
specific actions involving what they believe would
be a cooperation with abortions, assisted suicides,
and euthanasia. Assembly Bill 63 recognizes this
professional autonomy and upholds the dignity and
worth that we all share in our common humanity.
Some of us
pharmacists practicing in Wisconsin have certain
objections to involvement in drug therapy that we
believe could cause an abortion such as the morning
after pill. Some of us may also object to specific
cases, in which after consulting with the
prescriber, we believe that a certain drug regimen
would be used to cause the death of an individual
rather than to have a comforting effect as its
primary goal of therapy.
Assembly Bill 63 is
specific to these cases outlined above and would
simply be giving legal recognition to the
professional autonomy that we already hold as
pharmacists. This legislation is vital to the
recognition of our professional autonomy, vital to
facilitating arrangements of accommodations that are
reasonable between pharmacists and their employers,
and vital to the advancement of our practice of
pharmacy in the state of Wisconsin. Let's keep
moving forward.
Kindly consider
supporting this necessary and long overdue piece of
legislation.