George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. “It’s like surgery,” he says. “We don’t call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn’t intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death.”

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　　波士顿大学卫生法律系主任乔治·安纳斯坚持认为，只要医生为合法的医疗目的开药方，即使病人服用这种药物会加速死亡，医生也没有做任何违法的事情。 “就像手术，”他说，“我们不称这些死亡为杀人，因为医生不打算杀死他们的病人，尽管他们冒着会导致病人死亡的危险。”