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Refusal to Sell Morning-after Pill Lands Muslim Pharmacist in Soup

by Rajshri on May 26 2008 3:21 PM

A Muslim pharmacist has landed into trouble after refusing to sell emergency contraception to a couple as it contravened his religious belief.

Chris Mellett and Kaye Walsh went to a Sainburys chemist to buy the morning-after pill but were told they couldn't have it, because the pharmacist didn't agree with it.

"I'm a 36-year-old woman, not a child. I respect other people's religions, but when it affects my life it's not on," the Daily Star quoted recruitment worker Kaye, as saying.

"Surely the pharmacist has a duty of care? If relig-ion comes into it he should change his job," she added.

Pro-choice groups are furious that the chemist left Kaye and Chris in the lurch.

Marie Stopes spokesman Anne Quesney said: "We're outraged. It is not up to any practitioner or pharmacist to impose their own beliefs on their patients."

A spokeswoman for Sainsburys said all its pharmacists were governed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

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The society's ethics code says if the morning-after pill is against a pharmacist's personal, religious or moral beliefs they are within their rights not to supply it.

Source-ANI
RAS/L


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