Should these people be charged with murder?

[MosMom]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/18/hospital.deaths/index.html

I'll be honest, I'm not sure how I feel. Yes, the law is the law but those were horrible and confusing days following the hurricane. I'm not sure what I would do in their shoes.

 

[BuckNaked]

Absolutely they should be charged with murder.

 

[MosMom]

I guess I would want to know more about the situation. Were these people suffering? Did they have a chance of surviving?

Of course, euthanasia is illegal so they did break the law. I just don't know if I could watch people suffer and not be able to do anything to help them.

They really didn't do anything that hospice doesn't do daily.

 

[andromedaslove]

I think that although they broke the law that I would need to know alot more about why they made that decision to form an opinion. If these people were suffering, and were going to die no matter what, then maybe I can understand. With all of the people that died on the streets from lack of food, water, etc. It may have been better to do that then let someone starve or dehydrate to death.

 

[Christine]

Assuming these doctors did this in order to spare suffering, I think they should be charged for the breaking the law but I don't think they should serve any time.

 

[susan1]

no no no
as a nurse i realize they must have been to hell and back. i am sure they did the right thing at the time. if it was one of my relatives suffering i know what i'd want them to do

 

[kdibattista]

Based on specifically the facts... yes. However, I can not even begin to understand the circumstances and duress they were under so I will wait until the trial to make any judgements.

 

[Mrs.Toad]

Did the patients ask to be euthanized? This would make a huge difference in my opinion, even though I know it is still illegal. Yes, they should be charged, in order to allow a jury to consider all the relevent facts and make an informed decision.

 

[DisMN]

What a sad story. And what a profoundly horrible decision those doctors and nurses had to make.

I had actually assumed all this time that euthanasia had occurred during Katrina.
I suppose to follow the law there should be a trial but I'm hoping for a good outcome for the medical people involved.


.

 

[KelNottAt]

Assuming these doctors did this in order to spare suffering, I think they should be charged for the breaking the law but I don't think they should serve any time.

I agree. Maybe lose their licenses or something.

no no no
as a nurse i realize they must have been to hell and back. i am sure they did the right thing at the time. if it was one of my relatives suffering i know what i'd want them to do.

I agree with this, too.

 

[LisaNJ25]

No, we all saw the hell that healthy people went through. I couldnt imagine what was going on with those that were very sick and in the hospital.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I guess I would want to know more about the situation. Were these people suffering? Did they have a chance of surviving?

Of course, euthanasia is illegal so they did break the law. I just don't know if I could watch people suffer and not be able to do anything to help them.

They really didn't do anything that hospice doesn't do daily.

I guess hospice manages the dying making them comfortable and doesn't administer lethal cocktails.

The doctors decided for themselves they should die.

While maybe they should get off with a lesser consequence given the circumstance...I don't think are "not guilty".


No lethal cocktails were given when the airport was turned into a hospital to patients who were dying.

 

[MosMom]

It was turned into a hospital and they had equipment to help people. You've got to imagine a flooded hospital with no electricity and very little food/water had to look pretty hopeless. If they immediately killed them, that would be one thing but do you hit a point where you aren't sure WHEN someone will come to help you?

Were these few patients the only patients they had? Did they kill them all or were these few in dire need? I'll be interested to see the details that emerge in this case.

 

[mssocks]

No - I don't think they should be charged. Conditions were deplorable for healthy people, over 100 degrees, trapped in the building, no idea on when help would arrive.................a grand jury for sure to investigate the circumstances, but I'm not going to second guess what those people went through.

 

[tar heel]

Hospice does NOT do this daily. Hospice helps patients with pain control and to die with dignity but it neither hastens nor prolongs death.

My guess is that these people will not be convicted of murder, but, if there's evidence, they will be found guilty of some lesser charge.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

It was turned into a hospital and they had equipment to help people. You've got to imagine a flooded hospital with no electricity and very little food/water had to look pretty hopeless. If they immediately killed them, that would be one thing but do you hit a point where you aren't sure WHEN someone will come to help you?

Were these few patients the only patients they had? Did they kill them all or were these few in dire need? I'll be interested to see the details that emerge in this case.

Actually they didn't. They had limited services and had to triage people.

I don't need to imagine. If they were not guilty it would be by reason of insanity. They didn't protect these people. They made a deity-decision to control the outcome. That is not the oath they took.

While I don't think they should be going to jail for it, they certainly don't deserve to continue practicing.

Much like the nursing home owners who left their people to die. The only difference is they didn't give a cocktail.

We dont know either situation but do know that it was dire--but yet the nursing home people were convicted before they ever got a trial for the public. That was found unacceptable. But drugging patients is not? Weren't both set of care givers under roughly the same dire circumstances making the best choices they thought they could?

 

[MosMom]

I guess I'm a little shocked you would compare those two situations. I don't find them comparable at all.

 

[mrsltg]

I'm shocked that anyone would consider the accused actions as acceptable behavior. Unless these patients asked to die (and even then, they can refuse treatment, not be given a lethal dose) they were killed. It was done purposefully and willfully. That's murder - pre-meditated murder. Of course a fair trial needs to be had and all facts presented, but the law is very clear here.

As far as being the same as hospice - what hospice? Hospice helps with pain management and home visits - they do not kill people.

 

[NikiM20]

If I were dying , in a flooded hospital with no food, no water, and no electricity, I would definately want to be euthanized. So No i dont think they should be charged with murder...maybe these people asked for it? No one knows but the drs, Nurses and the now deceased patients.

 

[ducklite]

The thing that really bothers me about the article is this: "the killings allegedly were carried out to speed evacuation." If that is indeed the motive, then absolutely they should be punished fully. Speeding evacuation is simply not a justifiable reason for ending a life. However if it was done for the purpose of allegedly shortening the painful existance of a terminally ill patient who wasn't going to survive the situation, then perhaps they should be prosecuted on a lesser charge of manslaughter.

In all honesty, I fully believe that many doctors quietly assist terminally ill patients in dying sooner than they might by allowing them to self-administer what ends up being a lethal dose of morphine or similar drugs. The difference is that those patients are generally within days of death and self-administer the drugs generally via an IV pump. The doctors do not purposely administer what they know is a lethal combination of medication for the sole purpose of ending a life.

And that is the crux of this entire situation.

Anne