DUBAI // A doctor who strongly denied participating in the mercy killing of a stage-four cancer patient by failing to resuscitate her was on Wednesday found not guilty by Dubai Criminal Court.
Indian R S, 53, was acquitted of charges of deliberately ending the life of Asha Thapar, 64, at Welcare Hospital, Deira, on January 5, 2012.
Records said that a failure to resuscitate was a breach of health authority regulations in the UAE, which state that all necessary measures must be taken to revive patients who stop breathing.
A document attached to the case file stated that the Indian woman’s family had requested that medical staff not revive her if there was an emergency because she had been suffering from advanced-stage breast cancer since 2005, causing breathing and heart problems. The woman was also unable to eat properly.
A letter from Dubai Health Authority attached to the case file, however, stated that under no circumstances should medical staff end the life of a patient without orders from the patient or a family member.
Another letter from the head of legal affairs at DHA stated that the medical procedures taken with the woman had been correct, except for one breach that led to her death.
salamir@thenational.ae