Conscience and Professions

In response to the comment by Kim Daniels:

(1) I think the fact that (assuming doctors face professional sanctions for participating in an execution) the presence of a professional norm makes the case quite different from the pharmacist situation for the simple reason that state compulsion puts them in the impossible position of (possibly) losing their livelihood for complying with the state's demand.  Granting that violating your own conscience is a serious harm, I think it's safe to say that violating your conscience plus the possibility of losing your livelihood is even more serious, and something that pharmacists do not face.

(2) My comments were directed towards doctors refusing to dispense run-of-the-mill oral contraceptives.  (I believe another post addressed the question of cashiers dispensing condoms.)  I'm not familiar enough with the run of these cases to assess the accuracy of the statement that most of them involve abortifacients.  Obviously, the considerations I discussed would be substantially different in the case of a medicine that someone's religion teaches is evil in itself (i.e., one that has no legitimate uses). (I would disapprove of the state's attempts to compel someone to sell such a medicine against their conscience in the same way that I would think it wrong for the state to compel a Catholic hospital to provide abortions.)