Ethical Concerns

I have really enjoyed all the different topics that we have discussed throughout this semester. In particular, there are two topics that I found to be the most interesting, ethics and herbal medications. These both can be controversial subjects, and I think that they are somewhat related. Over the past two class sessions, we had an interesting discussion regarding personal morality and professional ethics. For some people, these two ideas are one in the same, while others believe they are distinctly different. For me personally, I think that personal morals relate to one’s culture and religion, whereas, professional ethics are a code that we are expected to abide by in our profession. Much of the debate between personal morals and professional ethics stems from which one should have a higher weight when dealing with a particular situation.

As I mentioned in class, we have all chosen to become pharmacists because this is a profession that aligns with our interests and in doing so it is expected that we are aware of the responsibilities that come along with it. When we signed up to be pharmacists, we signed up to follow the ethics of this profession. I think one way to clearly demonstrate this point is by using defense lawyers. I personally would never want to be a defense lawyer, as my personal morals would surely get in the way with defending criminals. Therefore, I do not think I would be able to abide by this profession’s ethics, so I have not chosen this as my career. I believe the same can be extended to the profession of pharmacy. If as a pharmacist you would not be comfortable with administering contraception, then perhaps this is not the profession for you. While we might be put in situations that go against our own personal morals, if the situation does not hurt our patients, we are not permitted to impose our own beliefs on another person’s care. As healthcare professionals, the safety and care of the patient should be our top priority. However, I do think the line between personal morals and professional ethics can easily be blurred, which makes this a controversial topic.

Lastly, I wanted to touch on the use of herbal medications because I think this can also relate to a pharmacist’s professional ethics. In class, we had talked about how many times there is a negative light around the use of herbal medications. There is very little information about the use of herbal medications in our pharmacy curriculum, so I think this makes us assume that they are not effective and should never be recommended. On the other hand, one’s culture or religion may play a big part in deciding on herbal medication use. As a pharmacy intern, I have seen many patients come into the pharmacy asking questions regarding specific herbs or vitamins. I think many times pharmacists are quick to say that these medications are not effective because they personally believe that this type of therapy should not be used. Is this a question of personal morals versus professional ethics? As pharmacists, I believe we should be better informed about alternative, herbal medications so we can offer better care to patients. In conclusion, I think that we, as future pharmacists, need to be aware of the potential, controversial situations we may face, and ask ourselves if we would put our own beliefs aside and truly do what is right for the patient.