image: This is cover of the new book, "When Doctors Kill." view more
Credit: Springer
Most people have heard of the Hippocratic Oath, taken by doctors committed to practicing medicine ethically. What happens though when doctors, those dedicated to healing and preserving life, cross the line and kill?
When Doctors Kill covers a wide span, beginning with the dawn of medicine and reaching into the 21st century. History is replete with "good doctors gone bad" – and in this book authors Dr. Joshua Perper and Dr. Stephen Cina, with a combined 60 years of medical examiner experience, chronicle the phenomenon of doctors who kill, including:
- Profiles of serial killer physicians – some who practiced more than a hundred years ago and some more recent
- Mass-murdering physicians who chose dictatorship or terrorism over healing
- Doctors who treated high-profile celebrities – Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Anna Nicole Smith, and others – and whose treatment may have led to their deaths
- An in-depth discussion and exploration of Michael Jackson's death and the role that doctors played in his drug abuse and demise
- Assisted suicide and euthanasia, the gray zone between comfort measures and homicide
- The Ft. Hood massacre – where Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army-trained psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 30 others in a shooting rampage
- The prospect of the first genetic homicide – murder by means of chromosomal manipulation.
Dr. Perper said, "As forensic pathologists, Dr. Cina and I witness death daily and have investigated hundreds of murders. We accept that most doctors are a force for good, but our book contains descriptions of graphic murders commit¬ted by healers. By shining a cold light on the risks patients face today and by dissecting the patterns of physician-killers of the past, we aim to accurately relay the circumstances of when, how, and why doctors kill."
Dr. Joshua Perper is a graduate of the Medical and Law Schools of Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Forensic Sciences from the John Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He is a former Chief Forensic Pathologist and Coroner of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh and since 1994 he has served as Chief Medical Examiner for Broward County in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Dr. Stephen J. Cina is a forensic pathologist working as the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He attended the Johns Hopkins University and received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Cina spent four years in the United States Air Force as a Regional Medical Examiner, flying around the world to investigate homicides and suspicious deaths. He is a recognized leader in forensic pathology at the state, national, and international level.
Joshua A. Perper, Stephen J. Cina
When Doctors Kill – Who, Why, and How
2010. X, 253 p., Softcover $24.95, €24.95, £22.99
ISBN: 978-1-4419-1368-5