[kinoxi]

there is a reason that no physician has ever been convicted of a crime for administering narcotics or barbiturates to a person in the agonal stage of the end-of-life process.

Kevorkian?

[Jim Noble]

Kevorkian?

Jack Kervorkin was a psychopathic serial killer. He was not a clinician, had no experience with any patients (who were not already dead), and he began his killing spree with the specific intent to murder persons who were not terminally ill and who, in most cases, were suicidal because of depression.

He was appropriately charged, convicted, and imprisoned, and his case has nothing to do with what I am talking about.

[HangnJudge]

there is a reason that no physician has ever been convicted of a crime for administering narcotics or barbiturates to a person in the agonal stage of the end-of-life process.

I have struggled with this

At what point can do we transition from

- Healing the living, extending life
: Hippocratic Oath holds, no exceptions
to
- Prolonging the process of dying
: Ok to relieve suffering if it means accelerating death

Any physician who stands at the cusp of this decision,
without quaking at their inadequacy,
is severely damaged