- Cullen is not alone, as a medical serial killer. Dr Michael Swango is believed to have killed 35 - 60 patients, and similar to Cullen, he was simply asked to resign, or moved to another location. Aino Nykopp-Koski is a nurse who was convicted of killing 5 patients in Finland. On March 28, 2013 Dr Virginia Soares de Souza was arrested in Brazil and is suspected of killing 300 patients. Then there is Dr Harold Shipman, who was convicted of killing 15 patients in England but is suspected to have killed between 250 and 400 of his patients. Then there is the case of William Melchert-Dinkel, the Minnesota nurse who was convicted of 2 counts of assisted suicide for counselling depressed people to commit suicide.
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Why do medical killers go undetected for so long?
- When I read the Pulitzer Prize winning book by James B. Stewart's, Blind Eye - The Terrifying Story of a Doctor Who Got Away With Murder it was clear that the medical community has a hard time believing that one of their own could do such acts. They also fear lawsuits and they fear that they will also be accused of being complicit in the acts by not effectively protecting their patients.
- How can society even consider legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide and thereby giving medical professionals, the right in law to cause the death or being involved with causing the death of their patients. This would provide cover for murder, which may or may not be done with the consent of the patient?
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Considering this information and considering the fact that the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition regularly receives phone calls or emails from people claiming that similar crimes have happened to their loved ones or friends, and considering the information in the recently released book: After the Error: Speaking out about patient safety to save lives. How could anyone who cares about the safety of vulnerable people support the legalization of euthanasia or assisted suicide?
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Further to that one must also consider that recent statistics showing that, where euthanasia is legal that: Euthanasia is out of control in the Netherlands, and the number of Euthanasia deaths increased by 25% in Belgium in 2012.Consider the three recent studies from the Flanders region of Belgium that found:It is simply not safe for society to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide.---------
- Daily Mail Report, April 29, 2013. Link to the article.
- * Charles Cullen is known as the most prolific serial killer in American history
- * It is believed he could have killed up to 400 patients by injecting them with lethal medication.
- * Went undetected for 16 years.
- * Finally caught in 2003 and given six life sentences in 2006.
'No, I thought that people weren't suffering anymore. So, in a sense, I thought I was helping.'
'You know, again, you know, I mean, my goal here isn't to justify.
'You know what I did there is no justification. I just think that the only thing I can say is that I felt overwhelmed at the time.'
'I think because it's a matter of worrying about lawsuits.
If they pointed out that there was a problem they were going to be found liable for millions of dollars. They just saw it as a lot easier to not put themselves in a position of getting sued.'
'The weird thing about Somerset Hospital was is that they were planning on firing me the night before. So they let me work one more shift knowing that they were going to fire me the next day,' he told 60 Minutes.
'So they let me work an additional shift with the suspicion that I had harmed patients. Which I, you know, was kind of a bizarre thing to do.'