Propriety or Impropriety of Medical Interventions

Dr. Conrad Murray was found liable in the death of Michael Jackson. Do you think Dr. Murray violated the physician/patient relationship? Why or why not?

Murray did not violate his physician-patient relationship with the pop king. It can be safe and reasonably assumed that he must have informed Michael thoroughly about the nature and consequences of the drugs he (Michael) sought and begged for. Interviews, reports and open court records reveal that there was full trust, implied as well as express, between them as it should be between a patient and his physician. It was unlikely that Michael would trust or hire a doctor whose credentials were not impeccable. And it would be just as unlikely for Dr. Murray to be careless or negligent in his duties to his celebrity patient and to his sworn oath. Drugs and other medications were strewn in Michael's room. Dr. Murray was bound to his oath never to abandon his patient. Add to that, the very close relationship they developed through the years. These were too valuable for Dr. Murray to make light of. Dr. Murray was caught in a steep dilemma between the risk of allowing Michael to receive profopol injections in addition to 8 Ativan tablets that last evening of the show. Dr. Murray must have opposed Michael's taking the drugs together but Michael could have gone on with what he wanted and needed.

The likelier cause of death was Michael's own drive to stay at the peak of success. He was a perfectionist, a perfect perfectionist, who could not let go. His adrenalin level was always at the highest level because he was completely brilliant. But the cost of sustained fame and success is too high and too demanding. It would not allow a human being to know rest. Michael was always on a performing mode and sleep had no alliance with it. Dr. Murray could have read Michael's deathly subject to sustained success and warned him what it was doing to his health and life. But it was too late for his patient to consider taking a break or a breather from the curse of success. But success is often at odds with nature and nature will always prevail.

Does Dr. House follow the standards of the physician-patient relationship and informed consent?

Yes, in all the cases he handles, including that of Mr. Powell who wants to let nature take its course and let him die. Because the doctors have not found the true cause of his illness, they are in a stiff contention as to what to do with him. Meantime, Powell is getting worse and he cannot wait to reach the edge without any hope. He does not want tests because they already failed before. And whatever they may find may only be uncertain or reveal that he is worse than they all thought. He wants to simplify his misery: he simply wants to end everything.