Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Should Physicians be Held Responsible for Patients who die from Overdoses?


The media tells us that people die from overdoses a lot within a year however, should the people prescribing the medicine be charged for the deaths of each patient who overdoses? Alan is a former associate deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of Diversion Control who talks about if there’s evidence to state that this doctor wrongfully prescribed the wrong amount of medicine, then the doctor should be charged for homicide. Most people who are prescribed drugs, like opioids, have already been addicted to a drug and they put themselves into a position of addiction with the new drugs. The media makes it seem like the people who pass away from prescribed drugs were because of the physicians prescribing the wrong amount of medicine to their patients. However, they passed away because they were addicts beforehand.
Do you think physicians should be charged for their patients deaths? Or is the media making the physicians the “bad people” since they don’t want to point fingers at the person who passed away due to drug overdose?

1 comment:

  1. I do not believe that the physicians should be responsible and labeled a murder for patients who overdoses on their prescriptions. If there is any direct evidence that they have accidentally prescribed them the wrong amount of medicine, which leads to their death, I believe the punishment should be an investigation on their license and maybe even a revoke of it. I do not think that they should be charged with homicide though. Mental health and addiction are leading causes of drug overdoses, however that does not diminish the number of accidental drug overdoses that take place yearly. However, I do not believe that every overdose that takes place should result in the charge of homicide towards the physicians. Before any charges take place, they should analyze the history of mental health issues and addiction to the victim.

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