German doctor may be tried for involuntary euthanasia
A woman doctor in Germany has been charged with second-degree murder after the alleged involuntary euthanasia of eight of her cancer patients. Prosecutors said that the patients of the 55-year-old doctor, whose name has not been released, had not expressed a wish to die. She denies this and says that she gave them a fatal injection of morphine at their request.
The investigation into the deaths at a hospital in the town of Langenhangen, near the northern city of Hanover, began two years ago after a public health insurance company pressed charges. In the wake of the ensuing investigtion the woman has lost her medical licence and closed the private practice which she ran next to the hospital. Now a Hanover regional court is to decide whether she should stand trial.
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