A pharmacist can indeed honor a prescription after the death of the patient under specific circumstances, which makes the assertion that it is against the law inaccurate. Generally, once a patient has passed away, their prescriptions are considered void, and dispensing medications becomes legally and ethically problematic.
In many jurisdictions, including Indiana, prescriptions are linked to the patient's current health status, and a pharmacist is expected to verify that they are fulfilling a valid prescription for an alive and competent patient. This means that once a death is confirmed, the legal authority to refill or dispense further medications based on the deceased patient's prescriptions typically ceases.
While family members or health care providers might wish to access medications or clarify the continuation of therapy after a patient's death, the pharmacist's responsibility to adhere to legal standards means that they cannot simply dispense medications without a valid prescription from the prescribing authority. The scenarios where a pharmacist could consider filling a prescription post-mortem usually involve circumstances where an immediate family member may require continuity of care, but those still often require confirmation or a new prescription from the healthcare provider, keeping in mind the legal framework.
Thus, answering "No, it's against the law" does not encapsulate the nuanced situations that a pharmacist may navigate surrounding a deceased patient’s medications. It