You know Scott--I'm not sure I'm buying this evil euthanasia bit. At least maybe not in this case. So much so, that I just may call shenanigans on the whole thing. It is just so easy to call it repugnant or unbelievable (even by today's standards) with 20/20 hindsight, beyond the immediate context in which these care givers faced. Now, don't get me wrong--I'’m trying to neither condone or condemn the alleged actions of these people; however, let's look at it from their perspective: No water; No power; Generator power probably gone; No refrigeration; Supplies are likely running low--if not absent or lost due to lack of power / refrigeration; You've been told that there will be no rescue effort; You have to evacuate, but without support; You have the Acute-Care Wing filled with patients that you can no longer care for: If you try to evacuate them, they die. If you keep them at the facility, they die. If you leave them (and evacuate to save yourself and others), they die.

Remember where America was at this point: mass media coverage of New Orleans. Crazy inner-city thugs shooting at everyone; Sean Penn comes with his shot-gun to save the day; mass looting, raping, and black people forced into cannibalism. Deliveries to the Super Dome are being denied, because of reports that hoodlums are out of control. Cats and dogs, living together... mass hysteria! (Who can guess the movie quote?)

I see this situation as a desperate lose-lose situation. They can't evacuate them; they can't evacuate themselves; they can no longer effectively care for them; they can't feed them or hydrate them; they're being kept alive by a modern medical model that they could no longer support. So I going to hold off on boarding the 20/20 "they're monsters" bandwagon. Deliberate euthanasia and doing your best with what is available to allow the dying and soon-to-be-dead to die with peace...that's a big difference in my book. If I know my acute care patients are about to die a crappy death, and they ask me to help them with their pain--I'll give them morphine. And if they want more, I'm not going to refuse them. I wasn't there; I don't know all the facts in this case; I do believe that the condemning pseudo-righteous mass media is likely to misrepresent the facts as the medical care givers saw them at the time.