Patients Killing Doctors

A discussion starting on a bioethics listserv to which I subscribe. The opening of the thread and followed by 2 responses.  Would you want and are you in favor for your physician to have a gun available in his or her office accessible for self-protection?  ..Maurice. The current issue of the New Yorker (Aug. 25, 2014) has a man-bites-dog story "Under the Knife" (pp. 30-35) about an epidemic of doctor-killings by Chinese patients Physicians, of course, have been (mostly inadvertently) killing patients throughout the history of medicine. With a few notable exceptions ( e.g., Gabrielle Zerbi 1455-1505/9 who was killed by the sons of one in retaliation for the death of one his patients a Turkish Pasha), patients have seldom retaliated in kind. ============================================================== RESPONSE: This happens in the United States as well. There seem to be three major categories    The "political murder" of doctors who perform abortions. e.g.Tiller The murder of psychiatrists. http://abcnews.go.com/US/patient-kills-psychiatrist-murder-suicide/story?id=14155088 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/patient-who-killed-psychiatrist-now-accused-of-slaying-hospital-roommate/ The murder of doctors because of the patient's believe that the doctor caused a side effect. Then I suppose one must also include what Grace Paley called "the little disturbances of man" where patients kill doctors ov...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs