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Tuesday, Sep 1 2015

Full Issue

California Doctor's Trial For Murder Could Have 'Chilling Effect' On Legitimate Pain Pill Prescriptions

Dr. Lisa Tseng pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges in the deaths of three of her patients who overdosed on pain killers she prescribed. Prosecutors accuse her of recklessly doling out pills in three-minute appointments while the defense says the victims abused their prescriptions.

During opening statements in her case Monday, Tseng hunched forward in her chair, settling in for a landmark second-degree murder trial that鈥檚 expected to last for months. The general practitioner, who scribbled notes on a yellow notepad and tapped her foot over and over, is the first California doctor ever charged with murdering patients who overdosed merely for prescribing them medication, Niedermann said. (Gerber, 8/31)

A prosecutor says that even after several patients died of overdoses, the California doctor now charged in their deaths continued to prescribe powerful painkillers in appointments that lasted as little as three minutes. But the defense attorney for Dr. Hsiu-Ying 鈥淟isa鈥 Tseng says some of those patients were suicidal, others were using the prescriptions to party, and all took well over the recommended dosage. (Myers, 8/31)

On Monday, Tseng went on trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court for the alleged murder of Rovero and two other young men: all patients who came to her looking for painkillers and died from an overdose shortly after. She has pleaded not guilty. It鈥檚 a high stakes case that has drawn national scrutiny and stirred a thorny debate over medical ethics. (Miller, 9/1)

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