Well, Well, I have just jumped in and haven't read all the posts. But I couldn't resist answering this one. My adopted sister Jana has once again, donned her clergy robes and preached a sermon. Good one too.
I understand Jacinto's position. That is the position of the Catholic Church. My personal belief is that God gives to a baby a soul when it takes its first breath. Genesis says God breathed life into Adam. I have seen people die. I have witnessed life sucked out of the body with the last breath. I believe that is when the soul leaves the body and goes on to the next world.
I think I have told this story about a young unmarried adult who was in a car wreck and lost a lot of blood. The doctor explained that there was nothing wrong with him except he didn't have enough blood to live. The parents were Jehovah's Witnesss. They believe that if you receive a blood transfussion then you will burn for ever in hell regardless what you do and there is no forgiveness and no way out of it. The other members of the family spend all the time there was until that young man died trying to convince them to give the boy blood. The parents refused and we had a funeral. I might add a needless funeral according to my religious beliefs.
Now, we either have rights concerning religious beliefs or we don't. I don't like the smell of these laws at all. Yet, I understand Jacinto's situation that if he were a pharmacist then he would feel he was participating ing a murder. We don't need laws on the books. A local pharacist who owns his own store doesn't have to stock every prescription. He does have a professional obligation to those bringing in prescriptions to tell them WHERE they prescription can be filled. The pharmacist as part of his profession does not have the right to preach religious beliefs. However, a pharacist does have the obligation to point out all the medical side effects of a drug.
National chains like Wal Mart sell all kinds of things. If you work at the cash register, you either process the beer and wine that is sold at Wal Mart or you don't have a job at the cash register. It is that simple. Pharmacists shouldn't have a right to tell their employeers what they will and what they won't sell their clients any more than any other employee in the store. Suppose I strongly belief in using only electric lawn mowers and here comes a customer with a gasoline powered lawn mower and I tell them to step aside and get in another line. I would be fired. The same goes for pharacists who are employees of a company. Employees don't dictate what the company sells.
As I said, if a pharmacist happens to own his own store, then he stocks what prescriptions he can sell or wants to sell. But the pharmacist has a professional obligation to tell the customer where to go to get the prescription filled and he does not have the right to refuse to return the prescription and he can't require the customer to listen to his 30 minute sermon.
Continuing, there is a lot of controvery of using cortizone. There are side efffects. Imagine a pharacist calling up the doctor and explaining to the doctor why the doctor is wrong about cortizone and why the pharacists knows best about this and he is tearing up the prescription because he knows better than the doctor. That pharmacist would lose his liecense to fill prescriptions.
By the way, the writers of the Bible knew nothing about conceptions, sperm, and eggs. They thought the seed was the entire human and a man planted the seed into the woman to grow like we plant seeds in flower pots.
There is a belief that life begins when cells have a life force. If that is true then life begins when the sperm/egg cell actaully plants itself onto the placenta and has a blood supply. A egg/sperm cell just floating around in the woman is no more a true living organism with a life support system than a single sperm or a single egg by itself.
I could state some more about all this but "sis" just stated it better than I ever could.
Originally posted by madame_zora@Apr 16 2005, 03:40 PM
The article I posted originally referred to several states considering similar bills. I haven't seen the wording on any of them, nor is it likely I will since this will never be brought before the public to vote on. Clearly, this is an attempt to allow religion to get a stronger foothold into government, but not the kind of religion any sane person would want.
Please show me anywhere in the Bible where Jesus wanted power and control of anything, other than the church itself!
This new brand of right-wing-holier-than-thou garbage in governemnt is a grotesque disfigurement of the message of love Jesus died to deliver. He spent all his time with those society cast down, not the morally "righteous". Why does nobody get it that when you think you're holier than your brother, you just couldn't be further away from God?
[post=301170]Quoted post[/post]
Well said, there. 
