When You Don't Really Need an Ethicist: Doctor Tries to Set Patients on Fire

Washington Times quotes George Annas and Bob Veatch on this lovely phenomenon:

"I still can't imagine how someone could justify intentionally trying to set patients on fire," said Robert M. Veatch, professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University and former director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown. "I can't imagine any possible defense. I suppose he could claim he had reason to believe that he couldn't hurt people by trying this and was trying to prove his point," Mr. Veatch said. "I saw nothing in the transcript of the deposition that could justify attempts to intentionally cause a fire," he said.

George Annas, a medical ethicist and chairman of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights at Boston University, said no patients would agree to participate in such an experiment. "I don't know what was on this guy's mind," Mr. Annas said. "There is no patient who would say, 'Sure, you can light me on fire.' "

They struggled really hard to analyze this one.