Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Euthanasia's slippery slope illustrated
Those who support the law being changed to allow euthanasia are usually quick to cry "foul" when the slippery slope argument is raised. A news story on today's wires nonetheless shows how real the threat is.
A German woman doctor who is facing manslaughter charges for killing eight of her patients is suspected of systematically inducing the deaths of up to 1500 hundred others in her care, on a scale outstripping the British mass murderer, Dr Harold Shipman.
Dr Mechthild Bach, a 54 year-old physician at the city's Parcelus cancer clinic, was arrested and charged with manslaughter last month for killing eight of her patients with massive doses of morphine.
Dr Bach was suspended from duty at the Parcelus clinic last year after a routine audit of medicines and cases at the hospital revealed above average orders for morphine and an unusually high death rate among her patients. German health insurance officials, who looked into medical files from Dr Bach's clinic said they were shocked by the high number of deaths and demanded action be taken.
Dr Bach rejects the charges and insists that she was merely relieving the pain of patients who were dying anyway. However, state prosecutors are now concerned that during her 20-year career at the Parcelus clinic, Dr Bach may have killed literally hundreds more patients with massive doses of morphium and the tranquilliser, valium.
One case, drawn to the attention of the investigators, involved 63-year-old Mrs Christa Dudel, who was referred to Dr Bach's clinic in May 2001 suffering from shingles. As she was fit enough to walk, her adult children were confident that their mother was merely going in for a check-up and that she would probably be sent to a convalescent home afterwards to recuperate. However 14 days later Mrs Dudel was dead.
Dr Bach had diagnosed her complaint as water on the lung and had injected her with lethal doses of morphine, allegedly to alleviate her suffering without even consulting her relatives.
Another case involved a 52-year-old man suffering from throat cancer who died 16 days after being admitted to Dr Bach's clinic. After the patient complained of chest pains, Dr Bach administered four 20 milligram morphine injections daily and took him off all other cancer combating drugs. Investigators later described the morphine dosage as "terminal sedation" and noted that the patient could have lived for "months, perhaps longer - even without chemo or radio therapy."
Dr Bach claimed that her patient had complained repeatedly of breathing difficulties and that as his condition had continued to deteriorate acutely, she had decided to offer him the chance of "dying in dignity."
Those who support the law being changed to allow euthanasia are usually quick to cry "foul" when the slippery slope argument is raised. A news story on today's wires nonetheless shows how real the threat is.
A German woman doctor who is facing manslaughter charges for killing eight of her patients is suspected of systematically inducing the deaths of up to 1500 hundred others in her care, on a scale outstripping the British mass murderer, Dr Harold Shipman.
Dr Mechthild Bach, a 54 year-old physician at the city's Parcelus cancer clinic, was arrested and charged with manslaughter last month for killing eight of her patients with massive doses of morphine.
Dr Bach was suspended from duty at the Parcelus clinic last year after a routine audit of medicines and cases at the hospital revealed above average orders for morphine and an unusually high death rate among her patients. German health insurance officials, who looked into medical files from Dr Bach's clinic said they were shocked by the high number of deaths and demanded action be taken.
Dr Bach rejects the charges and insists that she was merely relieving the pain of patients who were dying anyway. However, state prosecutors are now concerned that during her 20-year career at the Parcelus clinic, Dr Bach may have killed literally hundreds more patients with massive doses of morphium and the tranquilliser, valium.
One case, drawn to the attention of the investigators, involved 63-year-old Mrs Christa Dudel, who was referred to Dr Bach's clinic in May 2001 suffering from shingles. As she was fit enough to walk, her adult children were confident that their mother was merely going in for a check-up and that she would probably be sent to a convalescent home afterwards to recuperate. However 14 days later Mrs Dudel was dead.
Dr Bach had diagnosed her complaint as water on the lung and had injected her with lethal doses of morphine, allegedly to alleviate her suffering without even consulting her relatives.
Another case involved a 52-year-old man suffering from throat cancer who died 16 days after being admitted to Dr Bach's clinic. After the patient complained of chest pains, Dr Bach administered four 20 milligram morphine injections daily and took him off all other cancer combating drugs. Investigators later described the morphine dosage as "terminal sedation" and noted that the patient could have lived for "months, perhaps longer - even without chemo or radio therapy."
Dr Bach claimed that her patient had complained repeatedly of breathing difficulties and that as his condition had continued to deteriorate acutely, she had decided to offer him the chance of "dying in dignity."
