The Killing of Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson, incredibly talented, died so recently that people are still trying to figure out what happened. Many people are still in shock.

The shock now encompasses the real reason for his death – was it truly a homicide? The authorities have decided that it is, but were his doctor’s actions so hideous that they lead to the opposite of what a physician is supposed to do, which is to keep his patients alive?

The authorities claim that Dr. Conrad Murray was the cause of his death. This, of course, would be strange for most people who have died, but, then again, Jackson was not most people. And although he was always in the public eye, as everyone knows, he was determined to live his life exactly the way he wanted to.

In the twenty-four hours prior to his actual death, Murray had administered the following drugs to Jackson: Valium, Ativan, Versed, Lorazepam, and finally Propofol (also known as Diprivan), which was laced with Lidocaine. The doctor claims that he only injected the Propofol because Jackson “begged” for it, claiming he couldn’t sleep without it, in spite of all the very powerful drugs he had taken in the preceding hours.

The key question is whether a doctor, who is deemed to be an expert on medications, should refuse to give his patient a drug when he knows it could be dangerous. But, on the other hand, if his patient is told of the risk, can the doctor legally administer the drug, no matter what the ultimate consequences turn out to be?

In this particular case, the issue is complicated. Dr. Murray had an unusually close relationship to the pop star, even staying with him at his home. In addition, he was a cardiologist, a heart specialist, when Jackson, who was known by his associates and his family to have insomnia and a bad drug problem, would have been better served by a drug specialist, or even a sleep specialist.

We also cannot ignore the amount of monies that Jackson must have paid this ‘personal physician’; greed can certainly quickly dissuade many professionals from employing only their expert knowledge, and instead persuade them to focus instead on quickly filling their own bank accounts.

As his death has been labeled a homicide, was Dr Murray the proverbial man who pulled the trigger? He was a cardiologist, not a doctor who specialized in addiction medicine, drugs, or even insomnia, which is what Murray was treating him for. As a licensed physician, the law requires that he treat a patient using a certain level of knowledge and care, which, in reality, is quite high. Even though all doctors have some knowledge in specialty fields, it is not often enough to treat a patient with an ailment outside the doctor’s particular specialty practice.