Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Santiago del Chile (Agenzia Fides) - The president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Chile, Bishop Alejandro Goic of the diocese of Rancagua has made another appeal for respect for the right to conscious objection. The Bishop, who was speaking at a press conference yesterday at the Conference offices in Rancagua, was referring to announced government sanctions on pharmacists who refuse to sell the 'day after pill'. "I believe there exists a legitimate right to conscious objection which must be respected. There can be no intolerance in the face of a conscious objection to promoting the use of a pill which could cause abortion", said Bishop Goic, while heated discussion continues all over the country with regard to government sanctions on pharmacists refusing to sell the 'day after pill' " (see Agenzia Fides 26/10/2007).
A call to respect the value of life, the first of all values was launched by Bishop Cristián Contreras, Bishops' Conference secretary general who said "I think the issue lies much deeper that sanctions on pharmacies. This is a matter of human life. Whenever there is a minimum doubt of the existence of human life the safest options must be taken". In this discussion “we must keep in mind that freedom is an ample concept and in this sense pharmacists have every right to refuse the sell the pill for reasons of conscious objection ” the Bishop underlined.
In the heated discussion Chilean pharmacists welcomed the words of Pope Benedict XVI (see Fides 30/10/2007), who encouraged the consideration conscious objection in order to “avoid direct or indirect collaboration in the prescribing of drugs with clearly immoral ends, for example abortion or euthanasia". A leading chain of pharmacies in Chile demanded respect for 'freedom of opinion' with regard to the sale of the pill in question. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 31/10/2007; righe 24, parole 336)
