La. to probe report of mercy killings at Memorial

A CNN report on possible mercy killings at New Orleans' Memorial hospital in the week following Hurricane Katrina has led the state's attorney general to announce a new investigation. The network is reporting new allegations that at the height of the crisis several doctors and a hospital administrator discussed the option. According to the CNN version, the administrator closed the conversation with the parting admonition that the doctors "should pray about it." Some experts interpret those words as a confirmation of guilt. Not surprisingly, a spokesman for Tenet, which owns Memorial, denies that the conversation ever took place. State officials said they will run tests for the presence of narcotics, such as morphine, which might have been used in mercy killings.

- see this article from CNN
- read this report from the Times-Picayune

PLUS: Are these investigations just another example of the media getting carried away and going after a story with no substance? The Bioethics Blog thinks so. Blog