Ethical: August 2008 Archives

Sometimes I look inside my head and see a violent, stormy ocean of ideas such that I need a life jacket in order to stay afloat and to make some kind of sense of things so as not to unleash fragmented bits of unfettered emotion onto the world. Other times, there are nothing but sand dunes as far as the eye can see; even the rare oasis quickly drained before it can quench anyone's intellectual thirst. After staring off into space for about 10 minutes, realizing that I am clearly in a state of mind more closely resembling the latter, I came upon this article: Mary-Kate Olsen Wants Immunity in Heath Ledger Case. What was more interesting to me than whether or not Mary-Kate is going to cooperate was the following quote, "Investigators have interviewed Ledger's doctors and found prescriptions for every drug so far except Oxycodone and Vicodin, two powerful and often-abused painkillers..." So, is it malpractice if a patient overdoses on a drug that I prescribe? Any real attempt to answer this question would require far more brainpower than the wasteland inside my head is going to provide me with. What's your answer?