CONRAD MURRAY, M.D. DEFENDANT: WHATAYATHINK???

Don't try to make Michael Jackson's actions in this case anything other than extremely self-destructive.

It wasn't about "wanting sleep". It was about wanting powerful drugs that no reasonable adult would demand and any reasonable adult would know weren't appropriate.

I accept the point that this doesn't lessen the irresponsibility of the doctor. But Michael Jackson was not an innocent victim.

ERRATUM:
I said that MJ was exonerated of child abuse "twice".

That shoud be 3 times, counting the testimony in exculpation
from Macaulay Culkin. We don 't know how many times
he must be found innocent b4 u stop defaming MJ's memory.

ERRATUM:
I said that MJ was exonerated of child abuse "twice".

That shoud be 3 times, counting the testimony in exculpation
from Macaulay Culkin. We don 't know how many times
he must be found innocent b4 u stop defaming MJ's memory.

Erratum.

Michael Jackson was not found innocent. He was found not guilty.
As someone with legal training you should understand the
important difference between the two. [I guess u don 't approve of presumptions of innocence until conviction. David]

This will become relevant to this thread if Dr. Murray is found not guilty.

You should check your facts.

I assume you are talking about Jordan Chandler.
This claim is untrue.
He has not said publicly that Michael Jackson is innocent.
This is a rumor that is part of the Michael Jackson fan cult.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/sexuality/chandler.asp

Yes you are correct that Macaulay Culkin denied the charges.
But this does not refute evidence in any other case.

Multimillionaires with cult followings can explain away almost anything.

Its a bad day for personal freedom,

It's a good day for the justice system. The charges were appropriate

Murray trial as allegory
November 03, 2011
Stephanie Bouchard, Associate Editor

Trial of King of Pop’s doc has lessons for the profession

LOS ANGELES – Watching Conrad Murray on trial for allegedly unintentionally killing pop star Michael Jackson allows us to indulge in voyeurism, but some also regard the trial as presenting an allegory of sorts, that has particular significance for doctors.

The trial offers different meanings depending on perspective but all have one thing in common: Doctors no longer can count on being considered inviolable

“Doctors used to be considered sacrosanct,” said William Kickham, a Boston-based attorney. “Let’s face it. Anyone who could see inside your body was considered almost priestly and the idea of holding someone legally accountable for a mistake was considered almost unthinkable, perhaps 40 or 50 years ago. But in the past 30 to 25 years, that has changed.”

The social compact between doctors and patients and doctors and the media that shielded them to some extent, is gone, said Kickham. That means doctors, whether they’re treating high-profile patients or not, are under increased scrutiny.

That erosion of the social compact coupled with struggling to handle reduced reimbursements and more regulations leads to disillusionment, which poses dangers in itself, said Carole Lieberman, MD, a Beverly Hills-based media psychiatrist.

“These conditions that doctors are facing are causing them consciously or unconsciously to cut corners and that’s where mistakes happen,” she said. “As soon as you let the patient be the boss, be the doctor, then that’s when things fall apart. It is a conflict but you have to decide where your ethical boundaries are.”

“Doctors must remember that there are very strict standards that guide their profession both ethically and under the law,” said Christopher Brown, an associate attorney at Florida-based, the Health Law Firm. “It would be prudent for physicians to use Dr. Murray's story as a lesson for what can happen when you operate outside your training and when you place your patient's requests over what may be medically appropriate or necessary.”

“While it is the physician’s job to be a confidant and an advisor to his or her patients, it is also that physician’s duty to be the patient’s caretaker, and to place that individual’s health and safety above all else,” Brown continued. “A physician who forgets this duty, and allows a patient to adversely control his or her own healthcare, can face discipline from his or her respective state’s licensing board, a potential malpractice action, or as in Dr. Murray's case, even criminal charges.”

If doctors take away anything from Murray’s trial it should be that the increased scrutiny coupled with the eroded social compact means doctors may find themselves in criminal courts rather than in civil ones.

“… with the reduction in the availability of civil remedies in malpractice cases, tort reform, lower required medical malpractice insurance limits and greater statutory bars to bringing civil suits against physicians, I have observed an increase in criminal prosecutions of physicians as well as increased disciplinary actions brought by state and federal regulators,” said George Indest III, founder of the Health Law Firm. “In the past, physicians were given a great deal of deference and were usually afforded the benefit of the doubt when their medical judgment was involved. This is not so prevalent today.”

“It’s always a fine line to draw what’s negligent,” said Larry Feldman, special counsel, litigation, Kaye Sholer, a global legal services company. (In 1993, Feldman represented a boy who accused Michael Jackson of child molestation.)

“What we’ve seen now in this case, what we’ve seen in the Anna Nicole Smith case, is a criminal system getting involved in the issues that I would think 10 years ago were just civil issues,” Feldman said.

“There’s no insurance coverage that’s going to protect doctors from these criminal charges."
http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/murray-trial-allegory

Dr. Conrad Murray Is Not a Lone Wolf Among Physicians
By Dr. Marc Siegel
October 31, 2011 | FoxNews.com

As justice closes in on Dr. Conrad Murray, and the final determinations are made about which drugs were administered to pop star Michael Jackson, when, and by whom and with what intent, a larger social question emerges. Was Jackson’s problem isolated? Is the excess prescribing of various narcotics and sedatives a pervasive one among doctors and their patients, or is Dr. Murray a lone wolf? Is there a culture of misuse and enabling which enriches corrupt physicians even as it addicts patients?

The answer is an unfortunate...yes.

At a time of terrible drug shortages of lifesaving medication in the U.S., on the other side of the equation prescription drug abuse is a growing problem with doctors as willing participants or even users themselves.

Propofol overdose, the likely cause of death in Jackson’s case, is a commonly abused drug. There are five times as many cases of propofol abuse than there were ten years ago. In fact, studies show that one in five anesthesiology programs reported a case of propofol abuse by medical professionals.

But the problem is hardly limited to the drug known as “the milk of anesthesia” for its effectiveness. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that more than 7 million people in the U.S. abuse prescription drugs.

The largest problem of all is painkiller addiction. Jackson appears to have been in that group with his alleged dependence on the popular narcotic Demerol.

Unfortunately, these pain medications are often prescribed by doctors without expertise in pain management, as was allegedly the case with Jackson’s dermatologist, Dr. Klein. The doctors who most often prescribe narcotics for supposed pain are family practitioners, followed by internists and dentists.

A survey from IMs Health, a health consulting firm, reveals that Americans take 80 percent of the painkillers in the world, a shocking percentage. But painkillers are overused and abused in part because doctors like Murray and KIein overprescribe them, making large quantities readily available. Though more than half a million doctors prescribe narcotic painkillers in the U.S., it is a small number who prescribe the largest amounts.

The numbers here are getting worse. IMS Health has determined that there are 50 percent more narcotics prescribed in the U.S. than a decade ago. Vicodin (which is less restricted) use alone has grown from 116 million prescriptions in 2006 to 131 million prescriptions this past year.

Perhaps most concerning of all are the number of accidental overdoses resulting from this overuse. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 17 states report that accidental overdose kills more people than motor vehicle accidents.

What is to be done?

In Florida, which leads the country in prescription drug misuse, where buses of patients arrive from neighboring states seeking painkillers (known as the "Oxycontin Express"), attempts are being made to clamp down on doctors who sell painkillers for profit. The Florida Board of Medicine is partnering with the US Drug Enforcement Agency to close illegitimate “pain clinics,” to track bulk purchases of narcotics, and to identify and punish bad doctors who write prescriptions without even examining the patient.

It remains to be seen whether such actions in Florida and other states will be sufficient or will just lead to more demand for grey and black market alternative sources. One thing’s for certain; this problem of over-prescribing prescription drugs, especially painkillers, won’t be solved overnight.

The place to start is with the worst enablers, but for every one who is sent to prison, there are hundreds more for hire with prescription and pen in hand.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/31/dr-conrad-murray-is-not-lone-wolf-among-physicians/

Quote:

Its a bad day for personal freedom,

Neither Dr. Murray, nor anyone else, has the right to kill another human being through reckless criminal negligence.

Doctors do not have a license to kill.

It is more likely than not
that decedent secretly poisoned himself