Physician cleared in double-effect’ scenario

A Tampa, FL, physician was charged with first-degree murder in 1996 for administering morphine and potassium chloride to a terminally ill cancer patient. He was cleared of the charges this summer. (Florida v. Pinzon-Reyes, FL Cir. Ct., No. CF-96-00666A-XX, 6/26/97).

Adding to this seeming double-effect scenario in which the physician was charged with assisted suicide, a nurse had refused to administer the same medication because she thought it would be fatal. The physician maintained that he had given the medication to alleviate pain and slow a rapid heart rate. A key to proving the physician’s argument was the fact that the patient died an hour after the injection when defense experts testified it would have taken a maximum of 10 minutes for the patient to die if it were an overdose.