Ninth Circuit Ruling Means Washington Pharmacists Must Dispense Assisted Suicide or Leave Profession

Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wesley J. Smith

A federal case involving a pharmacy refusing to dispense Plan B–aka the “morning after pill”–based on religious objection also has disturbing implications for assisted suicide in that state. A three panel Court of Appeals panel reversed an injunction and sent the case back to the trial court for further consideration. But in finding that Washington regulations requiring pharmacists to carry and dispense all legal drugs and medications is a rule of general applicability–thus precluding religious conscience-based exemptions–it also means that all pharmacists in the state must dispense death to terminally ill patients in Washington who receive lethal prescriptions.
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