In addition, there have been dozens of doctors convicted of murder and mass murder in famous public trials, including classic crimes of passion (Harvey Crippen in Britain and Jeffrey MacDonald in the United States) as well as various questionable "mercy" killings (Harold Shipman in Britain and America's "Dr. Death," Jack Kevorkian). Doctors are no doubt far outnumbered as murderers by career criminals. But the wonder for most people is that a profession dedicated to life saving produces any killers at all.Why do they do it? How can they do it? After all, the Hippocratic Oath - which most every physician is taught, if no longer sworn to - commands "first do no harm." Can there be any greater harm than murder? Well, yes, some doctors would say. Endless, torturous suffering is worse than death. And the deaths of many are worse than the death of one. And the death of a culture or a country is worse than the death of a crowd at a nightclub. In truth, doctors are taught that while death is the enemy, it is also natural and inevitable, and not necessarily evil per se. Death quite literally can't be stopped, so the goal instead is to minimize suffering and the amount of "needless" or "premature" death. For the overwhelming majority of nurses and physicians, death remains a nasty adversary. But for the handful of practitioners who are inclined to turn homicidal, this familiarity with the Reaper, plus their training and practice, may make it easier, not harder, to kill. Consider our training. On the first day of class at almost every medical .............(article continues at:
www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/opinion/06iht-edocs.1.6530405.html