A pharmacist and PhD researcher at the University of Strathclyde has said pharmacists’ voices are “missing” from discussions, both current and historical, on the topic of conscientious objection in assisted dying.
Speaking at a Pharmacy Law and Ethics Association (PLEA) seminar this week (April 9), Isaac Moore said that dialogue on this topic was “a little stunted” and had not been “unpacked” in enough depth.
Read more: Assisted dying: MPs admit not ‘enough’ discussion of pharmacists
“I’ve been concerned [about this] for a number of years,” he said, adding that pharmacists’ voices are “crucial in this area of research”.
Debate on the assisted dying bill – formally known as the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill – has been “quite a tumultuous process” so far, Moore said.
Rather than “talking about conscientious objection”, the bill “phrases itself slightly differently and instead considers no obligation to provide assistance...[and] I believe the wording [there] is quite deceptive”, he added.
Not “robust enough”
“I don’t believe that any of the bills that we currently have” – in England and Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man – “offer robust enough protection for pharmacy professionals who are wishing to opt-out of involvement in assisted dying services,” he continued.
“While assisted suicide and assisted dying is far from a settled debate, I believe that it’s an important one that we continue to have dialogue [about], not something we just brush off,” Moore said.
Read more: Opinion: Assisted dying, and the importance of protecting conscience
It comes after MPs admitted last month that they “have probably not spoken enough” about the assisted dying bill’s “impact on pharmacists”.
Conservative MP for Reigate Rebecca Paul stressed that the government must “ensure that pharmacists can do their jobs in line with the regulations and laws they are subject to”.
“We have probably not spoken enough to date about the impact on pharmacists, but we are getting to the point in the bill where it is really important that we take on board written evidence and feedback that we are hearing from them,” she said.
And she cited a Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) statement that “in dispensing a prescription, a pharmacist assumes a proportion of the responsibility for that prescription and therefore must be assured that all legal requirements are in place and that it is entirely appropriate for the patient”.
