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Ann Alpers, Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying, 26 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 308 (1998). [HTML] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Alpers examines criminal investigations and prosecutions of health care providers in connection with their care of dying patients. Article concludes that providers’ fear of criminal liability for prescribing death-hastening pain medication may deter appropriate pain management for dying patients.

Alan Bavley, Doctor is Ordered Acquitted of Murder: Kansas Case Raised Concerns Over Issue of Professional Liability, KANSAS CITY STAR, July 25, 1998, at A1. $[Lexis]
Summary: This news story summarizes the decision in State v. Naramore and includes comments from Naramore concerning the case and his future as a physician.

Allessia T. Bell, Court Strikes Down Murder Conviction of Physician Where Inappropriate Care Let to Patient’s Death. 28 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 194 (2000). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Article summarizes the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit’s findings in the case of United States v. Wood. The court reversed and remanded Dr. Wood’s involuntary manslaughter conviction resulting from a lethal dose of potassium chloride delivered to an 86-year-old man suffering from severe abdominal pain. The court cited errors at the trial level and held that Wood was denied his right to a fair trial.

Francis P. Bensel and Barbara Decrow Goldberg, Prosecutions and Punitives for Malpractice Rise, Slowly, NAT’L L.J., Jan. 22, 1996, B7. $[Lexis]
Summary: Bensel and Goldberg discuss the increasing frequency with which health care providers are prosecuted for clinical errors and examine instances in which punitive damages have been awarded in medical malpractice actions.

Norman L. Cantor & George C. Thomas III, The Legal Bounds of Physician Conduct Hastening Death, 48 BUFF. L. REV. 83 (2000). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Cantor and Thomas advocate a risk versus reward dichotomy to determine when it is proper to administer an analgesic for the management of a patient’s pain. The criminal ramifications of withdrawal of support, cessation of eating and drinking, the use of risky analgesics, terminal sedation, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Norman L. Cantor & George C. Thomas III, Pain Relief, Acceleration of Death, and Criminal Law, 6.2 KENNEDY INST. OF ETHICS J. 107 (1996). $[HTML] (requires subscription)
Summary: Cantor and Thomas examine potential criminal liability and the commission of reckless homicide when physicians administer death-hastening doses of analgesics. The authors conclude that reckless homicide turns on whether the physician was justified in administering the drugs. To determine justifiability, one must consider factors such as the patient’s unbearable, persistent pain, the drug’s impact on patient lucidity and the availability of safer alternatives, and the analgesic’s odds of successful pain abatement.

Phebe Saunders Haugen, Pain Relief for the Dying: The Unwelcome Intervention of the Criminal Law, 23 WM. MITCHELL L. REV. 325 (1997). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Article notes the inadequate access to palliative care in the United States and the lack of physician training in pain management. Haugen examines the impact of criminal law on withdrawal of support, euthanasia, palliative care and medical malpractice.

Lynette Holloway, 25 Years to Life for Doctor in Woman’s Death After a Bungled Abortion, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 13, 1995, B3. $[Lexis]
Summary: This article reports the conviction of Dr. David Benjamin of second-degree murder for a mishandled abortion during which his patient bled to death. The trial court judge sentenced Benjamin, whose license had been revoked prior to this incident, to twenty-five years to life in prison for the offense.

Marshall B. Kapp, Treating Medical Charts Near The End Of Life: How Legal Anxieties Inhibit Good Patient Deaths, 28 U. TOL. L. REV. 521 (1997). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Kapp discusses legisogenic, or legally-induced medically inappropriate treatment near the end of life. Inadequate analgesic treatment to dying patients is attributed, in part, to well-publicized criminal prosecutions such as People v. Einaugler, which has had a chilling effect on the medical profession. Kapp also notes that physicians sometimes fail to prescribe controlled substances in an attempt to preserve a patient’s mental capacity to give informed consent to withdrawal of support.

Alexander McCall Smith, Criminal or Merely Human? The Prosecution of Negligent Doctors, 12 J. CONTEMP. HEALTH L. & POL’Y 131 (1995). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Smith explores the criminalization of negligent conduct by physicians in various countries. Article distinguishes between negligence and recklessness and suggests that criminal sanctions should be reserved for the latter.

Kara M. McCarthy, Doing Time for Clinical Crime: The Prosecution of Incompetent Physicians as an Additional Mechanism to Assure Quality Health Care, 28 SETON HALL L. REV. 569 (1997). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Article notes the deficiencies of civil medical malpractice claims in monitoring physician competence and presents arguments for and against criminal prosecutions of health care providers as a way of improving standards of medical care.

Susana Nuccetelli and Gary Seay, Relieving Pain and Foreseeing Death: A Paradox About Accountability and Blame, 28 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 19 (2000). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: The authors provide a philosophical analysis of the Doctrine of Double Effect, a moral-philosophical concept often invoked by physicians to justify their administration of death-hastening analgesics to terminal pain patients. Physicians attempting to exonerate themselves of criminal liability have cited this doctrine.

Anita J. Slomski, Compassionate Care – or Murder? Trial of St. Francis, Kansas, Family Practitioner Stan Naramore for the Deaths of Two Old and Very Sick People. MED. ECON., June 7, 1999, at 50. $[Lexis]
Summary: Article summarizes Dr. Naramore’s medical career and the patient care practices which led to his criminal prosecution. The article also notes rumors about Naramore’s personal life and their potential impact on his conviction at the trial level. New Kansas State Board of Healing Arts guidelines as to the appropriate use of controlled substances are also discussed.

Paul R. Van Grunsven, Medical Malpractice or Criminal Mistake? An Analysis of Past and Current Criminal Prosecutions for Clinical Mistakes and Fatal Errors, 2 DePaul J. HEALTH CARE L. 1 (1997). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Article discusses the increasing prevalence of physicians and other health care provides who face criminal charges for clinical mistakes and fatal errors. Several cases in which charges were brought are outlined.

Lab Pleads No Contest in Deaths of Two Women, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 5, 1995, C6. $[Lexis]
Summary: News story reports the entry of a no contest plea by a laboratory that was accused of reckless homicide for misreading the Pap smears of women who died of cervical cancer.