Lunch Break: Helping a stranger buy medicine – WWYD?
by LauraLoo
Would you help a stranger buy medicine if they didn’t have the money? ABC’s John Quiñones asks the question,What Would You Do?
This scenario is all too real for me. At my workplace this month we (in Human Resources) financially assisted an employee who was 2 days away from depleting her supply of a necessary prescription because she could not afford it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft6y_DW7rDs[/youtube]
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Nov.25, 2011 12:00 pm |
Video of the day |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
of course i would. however if the med was planned b then of course not.
Unless you were broke, I can’t see how any decent human wouldn’t help someone pay for medications if they needed it.
No, I wouldn’t. Because there are too many people who would abuse the kindness of strangers to feed a drug addiction. Without knowing a person’s situation or why they need a drug, there’s no way I could be sure I wasn’t enabling someone. In the particular situation they showed (an older woman needing diabetes medication), then there’d be less risk of the person being an addict trying to get a fix, but in general, no, this isn’t something I would do. Not unless I were familiar with the situation.
If you’re the sort that intones “Money is fungible” every time someone mentions the Hyde amendment, then you should probably check first to make sure that the stranger will never ever do anything you disapprove of, because by the transitive power of fungible money, you will be supporting everything they do after receiving money from you.
There’s a thought, Lisa. We could ask ’em if they voted for Obama before we decide. ;-)
Buying meds for people who don’t have the $ is fairly routine in my line of work, which is pharmacy.
It’s not nice to admit, but I tend to deny anyone who’s asking for a money handout because too many of them are frauds. I personally know enough people who are really down and out and I have no qualms of helping them out because I know that their need is sincere.
steveham. Plenty of people are frauds, but it speaks to a lack of compassion to refrain from helping anyone because you are afraid of being taken advantage of. I was a drug addict and a fraud, I know all the tricks. I generally don’t give people money randomly. I do buy them food, clothes, help them find a place to sleep, etc. I would, however, buy them their medications. I can’t see myself letting someone go without their medications on the off-chance that they might be drug seeking.
I would and I have helped. My Christian mother taught me the parable of the woman who gave her two cents and that’s all she had. I give all the time.
Jack, I’m glad you’re not a drug addict anymore. You’re probably a lot cooler now. :)
yeah a few weeks ago some guy asked me for 5 bucks. what for? i asked. he had “the look” of an addict. he said “for food.” i told him straight up “yeah thats what they all say. you had better not be using it for drugs and if you do then shame on you.”
trust me he was standing in front of the wallgreens and i know people like jack who think they are slick. but once im kind enough to give it to you and you have scammed me then karma comes back ten fold. trust me……..im slicker!
It might depend on what your knowledge of pharmacology is. Many medications have no psychoactive effects. There’s no reason a drug addict would want them. This might influence what you do.