Australian Doctor on Trial for Spreading Hepatitis C

An Australian doctor is on trial for carelessly spreading hepatitis C to 55 women in an abortion clinic. James Latham Peters, 63, was addicted to the opiate fentanyl, and reused the same needle he injected himself with on the women who came in for abortions. In his compromised state, he did not realize that he was spreading his own infection to the women.

When the abortion clinic hired Peters, they knew they were getting a doctor who had a history of drug abuse. In 1996 his license was suspended because of his drug habit. The abortion clinic, however, gave him another chance. His defense barrister, John Dickinson, called the clinic’s decision “mind-boggling”: “It was catastrophe waiting to happen, which did eventuate. It is a little bit like putting a sugar-addicted child in a candy store and saying ‘behave yourself’,” he said.

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