Paul Tuns The Interim Early reports of 10,000 deaths in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are now, fortunately, higher than reality but the death toll may still ignore the victim’s of the storm’s chaotic aftermath. England’s Sunday Mail broke a story of hospital staff committing euthanasia in the days after Katrina hit New Orleans, knocking out electricity, cutting off transportation and stranding hospital workers and patients. An un-named doctor admitted killing patients, saying: “I injected morphine into those patients who were dying and in agony. If the first dose was not enough, I gave a double dose. And at night I prayed to God to have mercy on my soul.” Still, she denied she murdered anyone: “This was compassion. They would have been dead within hours, if not days.” The doctor’s admission was collaborated by emergency worker William McQueen, who supported the decision to kill patients: “Those who had no chance of making it were given a lot of morphine and lain down in a dark place to die.” At the other end of life, Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas sought to cash in on the disaster. Based in the city where thousands of evacuees from New Orleans were forced to flee, PPHSET announced on its website they needed cash donations to continue its “reproductive health” services – abortion and the distribution of abortifacient drugs – to the people hit by Katrina. PPHSET was offering evacuees “one free cycle (one month) of birth control or one free Emergency Contraception kit to women presenting to a PPHSET clinic with a valid Louisiana or Mississippi driver’s license.” It also offered to administer abortifacient Depo-Provera injections at a discounted fee of $41. |
