Physician-Assisted HOmicide?

Reports from New Orleans about a hospital in which terminally ill persons were "euthanized" (as the saying goes) -- during Hurricane Katrina -- have sounded a troubling note. All is not well in the medical world when medical personel feel free to give lethal injections to persons who are dying, in order to be able to escape from harm themselves. (The patients all had Do Not Resusitate orders from the patients, but had not requested to have their lives ended.)

Here's the take of one advocate for the rights of the terminally ill on the situation:

Commenting, Not Dead Yet, says, "In other words, the only way the staff could evacuate was if they could report there were no more living patients to take care of. This was not about compassion or mercy. It was about throwing someone else over the side of the lifeboat in order to save themselves."

Not Dead Yet compared the allegations to what transpired at a New Orleans nursing home where 34 residents who were abandoned by staff drowned. "Death by drowning is easy to prove and so the owners of the nursing home are charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide," said Not Dead Yet. "It's unclear what will happen in the case of LifeCare medical staff. It's hard to prove morphine medication overdoses in badly decomposed bodies."

The fear of those who were medical care givers under those conditions is understandable. NO doubt about it. But, you have to admit the medical profession seems to be a long way from Florence Nightingale's example.

If this is a harbinger of the state of our culture (and that's a big if, I know), then we may well be sliding toward the cultures of the ancient peoples of the Americas who found it helpful to sacrifice others (ritually), for their own perceived benefit. Am I way over the top on this one?

Read about the tragedy. Hat Tip Drudge Report