An Effect of Communication on Medical Decision Making: Answerability, and the Medically Induced Death of Paul Mills

Abstract

In this essay, the occasion of a medically induced death is examined to illustrate how circumstances surrounding a medically induced death are interpreted through a theory of how social agents, on occasion, respond inappropriately. The essay illustrates and assesses an occasion when a health professional, faced with a medical crisis that was laden with professional, ethical, and even legal considerations, responded in a manner that overlooked all those standards when she injected potassium chloride into her patient, Paul Mills. In the essay, the case is chronicled and the character of the social and communicative mechanism that led to the disaster is given and used to interpret the events.

Notes

¹Personal communication from Nuala Kenny, O.C., M.D., FRCPC, Professor, Departments of Bioethics and Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 23, 2005.

²The ethical status of a morphine injection is not, for example, determined by its size but by the doctor's intent. High doses intended to relieve pain are ethically acceptable, but even low doses intended to cause death are not.

³“Nursing Home Owners Face Charges: Couple Charged With 34 Counts of Negligent Homicide,” at http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/13/katrina.impact/, posted September 13, 2005.

⁴“Louisiana Probes Euthanasia Allegations: Investigation Focuses on Reports of ‘Mercy Killings’ At New Orleans Hospital,” at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9699709/, posted 10/14/2005.