Michael Jackson manslaughter trial

[DaisyDeadhead]

Interesting ethical questions. If you pay a doctor a million+ dollars a year, shouldn't he do whatever you tellem to do? I mean, the person hiring you would be your BOSS, how could you refuse?

Obviously, he was hired to administer the questionable drugs in the first place. Is that manslaughter? He will only get 4 yrs if convicted and will lose his medical license.

His naked greed may convict him. After MJ hired him, he sent his patients an ecstatic letter in effect saying ADIOS YALL, the GRAVY TRAIN IS HERE! (Or as Gloria Allred says, Mr Green has arrived.) And then he only had MJ as his "patient"... and got to travel all over the world.

I agree w/yanking the license, but its obvious that he was only carrying out his employer's wishes. Then again, is a physician supposed to have a higher calling? Think of all those "team physicians" who do little more than give steroid shots to athletes, which CAN'T be any good for their joints...

Opinions?

[Darrell]

Quote:If you pay a doctor a million+ dollars a year, shouldn't he do whatever you tellem to do?

Not if it's unethical or unsafe.

Doctors have a code of professional ethics that they are bound to uphold. They take an oath to do no harm. It's their job to tell a patient "no" when the patient is demanding that they do something harmful.

[DaisyDeadhead]

(09-28-2011 09:27 AM)Darrell Wrote:  

Quote:If you pay a doctor a million+ dollars a year, shouldn't he do whatever you tellem to do?

Not if it's unethical or unsafe.

Doctors have a code of professional ethics that they are bound to uphold. They take an oath to do no harm. It's their job to tell a patient "no" when the patient is demanding that they do something harmful.

True that... I just think those ethical standards are mostly in the past, Darrell. Look at poor Brittany Murphy. No one was held accountable for the umpteen drugs in her system... SOMEBODY had to have prescribed them.

I easily got drugs from doctors, when I was so inclined. Everyone knows/knew which doctors to go to. Nobody ever busted these guys... my mother's decades-long amphetamine-prescriber retired and bought him an island in Greece.

And in Hollywood particularly, they pump them fulla drugs, ply them with plastic surgery they don't need, etc. Dr Murray is probably wondering why those team physicians get by with so much, and he can't.

After all, I am wondering that too.

[Tiarali]

Abusing prescription drugs is supposed to be illegal. Which makes the doctor a high profile drug dealer. He shouldn't be allowed to keep his medical license, because the decider for him is the patient's pocket, not their well-being.

If you don't prosecute him, you send a clear message that other stars' doctors can do whatever you want. Also, you either send the message that drug dealing shouldn't be prosecuted or that only one class of drug dealers should face prosecution, and both of those carry nasty repercussions.

At the end of the day, the question seems to be: are stars under the same laws as the rest of us?

[DaisyDeadhead]

(09-28-2011 01:02 PM)tiarali Wrote:  Abusing prescription drugs is supposed to be illegal. Which makes the doctor a high profile drug dealer. He shouldn't be allowed to keep his medical license, because the decider for him is the patient's pocket, not their well-being.

If you don't prosecute him, you send a clear message that other stars' doctors can do whatever you want. Also, you either send the message that drug dealing shouldn't be prosecuted or that only one class of drug dealers should face prosecution, and both of those carry nasty repercussions.

At the end of the day, the question seems to be: are stars under the same laws as the rest of us?

I think the last MJ trial settled that question, as did the Robert Blake trial, OJ Simpson... even Casey Anthony. (One theory goes: by the time she went to trial, Nancy Grace made her as famous as any other celebrity, and we just *don't* convict celebrities in America.)

If you read a lot of celebrity bios, as I have, you learn lots of the Hollywood doctors are drug dealers and collaborators. And even when not directly dealing, as in this case, they "ignore" dangerous things and are reluctant to challenge the celebrity (i.e. Karen Carpenter), all to stay on the payroll. Dr Murray was caught *in the act*--is the major difference.

Even Elvis died with contraindicated (but legally prescribed) drugs in his system. Nobody went to trial for that.

After the Winona Ryder trial, some doctor who supplied her and Courtney Love briefly got put on probation or something, but that is the last Hollywood doctor-dealer who got called on the carpet, that I can even recall.

[paul]

(09-28-2011 01:36 PM)DaisyDeadhead Wrote:  Dr Murray was caught *in the act*--is the major difference.

As Inspector Andre (Anton Rodgers) tells Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, "To be with another woman, that is French. To be caught, that is American."