Vatican, Oct. 29 (CWNews.com) – Catholic pharmacists should not be involved in the distribution of drugs designed to cause abortion or euthanasia, Pope Benedict XVI said on October 29.
In a short talk to members of the International Federation of Catholic Pharmacists, the Holy Father urged the group to be sensitive to “the ethical implications of the use of particular drugs.”
Specifically, the Pope said, “we cannot anesthetize consciences as regards, for example, the effect of certain molecules that have the goal of preventing the implantation of the embryo or shortening a person’s life.”
Pharmacists should help the public to recognize the dignity of human life and to recognize the proper role of medicine, the Pontiff continued. When laws allow for abortion and euthanasia, he said, pharmacists should “face the question of conscientious objection,” rather than “collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes.”
“The biomedical sciences are at the service of man,” the Pope said. He welcomed progress in biomedical research, but insisted that this progress should never come at the expense of individuals. No human should be exploited as the subject for experimentation, he said, and “all attempts at cure or experimentation must be undertaken while bearing in mind the well being of the person concerned, and not only the pursuit of scientific progress.”
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