Mercykilling Under Dire Circumstances Does Not Equal Murder

Dr. B is right on in her post attacking the murder charges filed against the doctor and two nurses in New Orleans who gave patients in dire straits lethal injections of morphine during Hurricane Katrina. What were they supposed to do? Let the people suffer on endlessly. The hospital was without power for several days. Even the generators had broken down. Temperatures inside were over 100 degrees. These patients were already in life-threatening situations. Perhaps some of them would have survived for a brief time after they were evacuated, or maybe they would have died in extreme pain and suffering.

In any case, how can some prosecutor make claims that these health care providers were murderers given the circumstances? I sure hope that some people's anger over the failure of the New Orleans health care system in the days after Katrina doesn't end up resting on the heads of doctors and nurses who made the best call they could at the time. Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti certainly wants to, saying, "“This is a homicide. This is not euthanasia. . . . If someone goes to a nursing home you want to think that they are safe."

If this is not the definition of euthanasia, I would like to know what is.