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Thursday March 5, 1998
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PrintMORRISON CASE DETAILS SURFACE
TODAY'S HEADLINES
HALIFAX, NS, Mar 5 (LSN) - The details of the Dr. Nancy Morrison murder trial have been released since the judges ruling has brought an end to the publication ban. During the trial it was revealed that a nurse witnessed Morrison giving two injections into the patient's IV line.
The nurse questioned Morrison about the content of the syringes at the time and learned that the needles contained nitroglycerine and potassium chloride (KCl). Within a minute of the KCl injection the patient was dead. After being briefed on the suspicious activity of Morrison, nursing supervisor Paula Poirer questioned Morrison as to why she had administered KCl. According to Poirier, the doctor replied: "Oh my God, I don't know why." Geoffrey Barker, the chief of critical care medicine at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, testified as an expert witness noting that KCl had no value as a medicine for relieving pain or discomfort in terminally ill patients. Barker also said it was fair to assume that when administered as described in the case "it's being used to hasten death."
The defence noted that the concentrations of KCl in the injection could not be known and thus the evidence was not concrete. Also, due to the nature of KCI's quick deterioration in the body, an autopsy could not reveal the presence of the drug. Further, the defense under lawyer Brian Greenspan noted that there is some evidence to suggest that the IV was faulty and thus the drugs administered would have had no effect.
Nova Scotia Provincial Court Justice Hughes Randall said the Crown had failed to provide sufficient evidence to commit Morrison to stand trial on the charge of first-degree murder or any lesser offence in the November, 1996, death of Paul Mills. Lead prosecutor Craig Botterill said the Crown is considering an appeal of the ruling to a higher court. It may also send the matter to trial through a preferred indictment, or abandon the case altogether.
Back to TopOREGON'S GUIDEBOOK FOR DOCTORS WHO KILL PATIENTS
PORTLAND, Ore., Mar 5 (LSN) - On Tuesday, a panel of medical "experts" introduced a guidebook on assisted suicide. The 91-page "Oregon Death with Dignity Act: A Guidebook for Health Care Providers," was the work of a panel formed by the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health Sciences University.
Although the guide does not offer a recipe for a lethal oral medication, it does review the types and purposes of drugs that could be used by a patient to end life. It suggests discontinuing medications before taking a lethal dosage and giving the patient a mint or lidocaine, to dull the tastebuds, before taking bitter-tasting lethal concoctions. The guide also includes information from studies on lethal medication from the Netherlands and "Compassion in Dying," a right-to-die organization which has published a recipe for a lethal concoction of drugs.
BUSINESS DOWN IN VIRGINIA AND ABORTION INDUSTRY OUTRAGED
RICHMOND, VA, Mar 5 (LSN) - According to preliminary statistics from the state health department and abortion clinics, girls 17 and younger got about 20 percent fewer abortions in Virginia in the first five months of a new law requiring them to have parental consent. On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood and other state abortionists reacted to the loss in business by taking the state to court to argue against the constitutionality of the law which took effect July 1.
Figures compiled by the health department and The Washington Post indicate that teenagers 17 and younger committed about 700 abortions in Virginia from July through November 1997. In the same months a year earlier, that group had 903 abortions.
Abortion supporters reacted angrily to the drop in business. Simon Heller, a lawyer with the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York said "It's a shocking decrease in the number of young women obtaining abortions in Virginia." Fiona Givens, a spokeswoman for Virginia Society for Human Life expressed her views saying, "It's a win- win situation for everybody: for the families, because the girls are not aborting their babies in secret, and for Planned Parenthood, because they're always looking for ways to curb teen pregnancy and abortion."
Apparently, Planned Parenthood does not share Givens' positive appraisal of the lower abortion rate as it argues in court that the new requirement for parental notification should be abolished.
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