From Mr P. Robinson, MRPharmS
SIR,—I refer to Mr Whittaker's letter (PJ, November 20, p817). Mr Whittaker seems sincere about wanting to help the victims of sexual mismanagement and we all share that sincerity, but improving ease of access to hormonal emergency contraception is not the answer because it will make the problem worse and not better.
Symptomatic treatment of any disease is only a stop-gap and not a cure. It will not prevent the symptoms worsening and will fail to stop them spreading.
Mr Whittaker is right to say that society is "changing" and that there is a "cold, hard world out there", but he is unwittingly describing the fruits of nearly a century of humanistic morality to which he evidently subscribes himself. Think what another century will achieve!
It is not true to say that "only we are right" because we, unlike our Maker, are not perfect. But if after 100 years of moral freedom we have an epidemic of "divorce, contraception, abortion, child abuse", etc, what responsible person needs such freedom any longer?
This matter is a highly sensitive moral issue which affects the conduct of society and has far-reaching social and financial implications for us all. There is a need for expert counselling that goes far beyond the responsibilities, or capabilities, of a pharmacist. One cannot be an expert in everything after reading a six-hour distance learning pack, and it is to be hoped that the Society's Council will be less concerned with its millennium image than with doing what is right.
Peter Robinson
Horsforth, Leeds