A Critical Analysis Of Dispensing Morality By Ellen Goodman

In "Dispensing Morality" (2005), Ellen Goodman asserts that she wants people to have strong moral grounds ("To each his own conscience...") but they have to understand other people’s moral grounds and priorities and not meddle into other people’s personal lives ("But the drugstore is not an altar. The last time I looked, the pharmacist’s license did not include the right to dispense morality."). Goodman illuminates how conscience clauses starts to increasingly empower and gives people opportunities to make choices based on their moral beliefs to the point of inconveniencing people; It starts with laws of exempting doctors in 47 states who don’t perform abortions which the author believes is fair as “Doctors are not automatons who leaves their
beliefs at the operating room door…” but it goes to the point of having pharmacists who don’t fill in prescriptions as they feel it is not morally right (“In just six months, there were about 180 reports of pharmacists who said no. One refused to fill a college student’s birth-control prescription…”) which the author questions “How much further do we want to expand the reach of the individual conscience? Does the person at the checkout counter have an equal right to refuse to sell condoms?....” and further on compares, “Pharmacists don’t have the same right to refuse filling a prescription as a doctor has to refuse performing an abortion….”. Ellen Goodman elaborates on these examples of conscience clauses, in order to stretch on the prevention of meddling into other people’s personal lives (“Have we forgotten that what holds us together is the other lowly virtue, minding your own business?”). Ellen Goodman addresses people who suffer inconvenience because of someone’s beliefs and morals; In a way, it also targets upon the government who should take action which draws a clear line between occupational duty and someone’s morals.