April 20, 2024

IN BRIEF: euthanasia; Chinese death sentence

Infant euthanasia in UK: Britain’s General Medical Council is inquiring whether a doctor acted properly in treating a desperately ill premature baby with a dose of muscle relaxant 23 times larger than normal. Dr Michael Munro admits that he administered the drug Pancuronium to a child known as Baby X in December 2005 and thereby hastened its death. Nevertheless, he insists that it was appropriate conduct. In the course of the investigation it emerged that Dr Munro had done much the same to a second child six months earlier, even though he had initially denied ever using the drug before.