# Pharmacists and refusals

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pharmacists-and-refusals/577713>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 8, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pharmacists-and-refusals/577713 "2011-04-08T20:18:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 308

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pharmacists-and-refusals/577713/308 "2011-04-12T17:55:50Z")

</div>

> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Imagine, for whatever reason, you hate black people.
> 
> If you become a Public Defender should you be able to refuse to represent black people? Afterall, if you defend a black person you would abhor doing it thus should be allowed to not do it.
> 
> Or, more reasonably, if you are someone who abhors black people you probably should not become a Public Defender.

No.

And the reason is that society is not prepared to recognize that racial animus is a a compelling reason for refusing to serve a client as a public defender.

But society is prepared to recognize that abhorrence of abortion and abortion-related treatments is a reasonable basis for refusing to serve a particular client a particular medicine.

This is because abortion and race are different. I know you’d like for them to be the same, but they are not. They are spelled differently, sound different, and involve different things. Your response to that is to simply assert that they are the same anyway, but they are not.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pharmacists-and-refusals/577713)._