Clinicide

[page 90, column 1] [Harold] Shipman killed himself in Wakefield prison on 13 January 2004. The Coronial hearing brought to an end a series of inquiries that found he had committed at least 250 murders in a killing career – a clinicide – that went back to internship at Pontefract General Infirmary. [...] [page 92, column 1] The frenetic consulting was a process of constant preparation for the clinicides, familiarizing himself with the killing ground and meticulously preparing for the moment when he could catch the patient alone, swiftly kill them and loot the place for their stock of narcotics, either for his own use or to use on the next victim.

Clinicide is the unnatural death of multiple patients in the course of treatment by a doctor. Clinicide occurs in a group that has a high rate of homicide. [H. G.] Kinnell maintains that doctors kill more than any other group (veterinarians, apparently, have never produced a serial killer).

The analogies between poisoning patients, forging a will to announce the end of the clinicides and finally, death by hanging seem uncannily close.

Clinicide can also be detected by the substantiation of injurious, unnecessary, and potentially lethal medical procedures or treatment.

The striking aspect of clinicide is the scale of suspicious deaths with which it is associated, which outnumbers proven murders by an order of magnitude (in [Harold] Shipman's case, a factor of (240-15)#47;15#61;15), a figure that only hints at the enormous interpersonal disruption and family grief which follows in its wake.