Earlier this month, I was asked to consider submitting an article discussing the conviction of Conrad Murray, M. D. On November 7, 2011, Murray was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson.
In my research, I came across an interesting case. The case is United States v. Bek, 493 F. 3d 790 (7th Cir. 2007) The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a conviction for prescribing drugs without a proper medical purpose. The Court rejected a defense argument that patient records had been erroneously admitted in violation of the physician-patient privilege. The Court noted that the controlling law in this federal prosecution was federal common law, which provides no physician-patient privilege.
The Seventh Circuit declined to adopt a physician-patient privilege in light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Jafee v. Redmond, finding "no circuit authority in support of a physician-patient privilege even after Jafee" and seeing no reason to create such a privilege.
On another note, perhaps federal prosecutors will want to prosecute Dr. Murray on the theory of prescribing or using drugs without a proper medical purpose.
GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law
No comments:
Post a Comment