When someone tells me I’m wrong because you don’t like what I said, then do some research and prove me wrong. But the point is, if a doctor mistreats a patient because they were ordered to, then it is the fault of the doctor and not the people who told he/she to do it. That’s called malpractice and can lead to million dollar suits.
I’ll say it again, the problem the hospital has is with the law and not the doctor. They can ask a doctor to mistreat a patient, but they can’t make he/she do it. The doctors are bound by their Hippocratic oath:
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.
I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
So the doctor is bound by this even before he/she is a doctor. He treats the patient as it is. And doesn’t allow an organization like a hospital to deny proper treatment for any reason. And forcing a physician to change prescribing is what happened in this case.
Sorry for telling you the truth. Look it up and you may get a better understanding of the law.
rwood
Medical malpractice is governed by a concept called "standard of care". Care to cite ANY US court decisions that establish a standard of care requiring doctors to assist their patients to kill themselves? You can't, because there are no such decisions, at least not yet.
Doctors haven’t taken the hippocratic oath in years. My class in 1986 did not.