� After an elderly patient dies, nursing staff begin to realise that her
heroin syringes have been running out much faster after her daughter, a
qualified nurse, has been to visit. However the coroner records that the
patient died from bronchial pneumonia which was a result of the illness,
not of the drug.
Despite confessing to the medical staff what she had done, it was
decided that there was no case to answer.
�A doctor treating an elderly, bed-ridden patient at home, leaves powerful
sleeping tablets by the bed with strict instructions that no more than
two must be taken on any account. The patient has already told the
doctor that she wants to die.
� A woman suffering from manic depression yesterday walked out in front of
a double-decker bus. She was instantly killed. Her boyfriend said that
she had
been very upset prior to the incident but he didn�t think she would
have done that � he was in a state of shock.
�A badly deformed baby is born and needs immediate maximum intensive care
to survive. The mother also needs urgent medical care, and the doctor
deliberately deals with her needs first.
�A consultant rheumatologist from Winchester made huge headlines when he
was convicted of attempted murder, but given a 12 month suspended sentence
in 1992. His �crime� had been to give a terminally ill, elderly
woman a lethal injection of potassium chloride. She had requested this
and her decision had been fully supported by her two sons.
