What if a doctor knows he is taking an improper shortcut that can kill? That’s a willful act, even if he is hoping no harm will result from it.

This pharmacist sent out an improperly prepared tx, and was warned by his subordinate that it was not properly mixed. It wasn’t a wasn’t mere “mistake”, It was a reckless chance with the life of another human being.

If you go to work with that thought in the mind, then you have vastly overstated your risk and would do well to get a better understanding of it. You probably have more risk in driving your car to work each day than being bankrupted by a malpractice claim. Have you started taking the bus?

As for “lotteries”, show me a malpractice victim with a large verdict who is happy to have won that particular “lottery”.

That’s a total strawman. Criminally negligent homicide is not some new crime invented to persecute the good samaritan, and it is not a symptom of a changing society.

I don’t have facts enough to judge how well the prosecutor has employed his discretion, but from the information given, a detail stands out – the pharmacist was warned by the person who prepared the solution that it was not prepared properly, “there was something wrong with it”, and he sent it off to be used in full knowledge of the error in formulation, whether it killed anybody or not was of so little concern to him, that patients who rely upon his professional expertise died as a result of his lack of caring.

As a pharmacist he had to know that formulation errors can be fatal, and short of that, the formulation may not have the proper therapeutic affect, also placing patient’s in harm’s or even death’s way.

How egregious was his callous disreguard for the lives of the public? None of you has enough facts to determine it did not rise to the level of criminal negligence.

If we have even a few cases of physicians being convicted, the results for society will be devastating. Physicians are already precariously practicing. When you go to work every day knowing each and every decision you make could put your life and your family’s life at financial stake (often regardless of the correctness of your decisions: read lottery), that is too much to ask of these baseline perfectionists.

I appreciate the role lawyers have played in making our country a country of law paving a way for our amazing abundance, but this is going too far.

I doubt, however, a prosecutor would pursue a case against your mechanic for damaging your car, absent doing so in furtherance of some illegal act, or damaging it willfully.

However, in the law, negligent homicide is a real crime. Any physician or health care provider is not immune from prosecution if victim dies as a result of a criminal negligence. It would be a high burden, but there are acts so negligent that death resulting from them, even when the physician did not intend to cause a death, where he might face prosecution.

Dr. Parks further seems shocked that the prosecutor makes the call as to whether the defendant is charged criminally. The prosecutor makes the call on whether almost all state criminal charges are filed. Why is he surprised?

Since he gives us few of the details of the case, it’s hard to know whether the pharmacist’s acts rose to the level required to obtain a criminal conviction, and a jury will ultimately decide. But if it was willful or wanton, why is a conviction any more unjust than a person who is drunk and negligently runs over a child?