German doctor tried for 13 deaths

BBC News

A German doctor has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 13 cancer patients who died from suspected overdoses of pain-killing drugs.

Bach says her actions did not shorten the lives of her patients

A tearful Mechthild Bach, 59, said her actions to lessen her patients' pain had not shortened their lives.

She said all the patients had been close to death, and that she had been helping them to live in dignity.

It is the second time she has stood trial; a first trial collapsed in 2008 when one of the judges fell ill.

Dr Bach has suggested the charges might have arisen because of mistakes in her paperwork, as she did not document certain consultations with the patients in question.

Morphine appropriate?

Prosecutors say Dr Bach, 59, on trial in Hanover, killed the patients between 2001 and 2003 with overdoses of morphine or the sedative diazepam.

Morphine treatment was not appropriate for most of the patients, said Regina Dietzel-Gropp, for the prosecution, adding that the doses were too high in the other cases.

She said the patients, aged between 52 and 96, were not all terminally ill.Read more...