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Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)
A county judge in Ohio has ordered a hospital in Cincinnati to administer ivermectin to an intensive care patient, a move raises questions about the role of the courts in the medical system.
“It is absurd that this order was issued, ” Arthur Caplan , professor of bioethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, told Ars. “If I were these doctors, I simply wouldn’t do it. ”
The order was spurred by the lawsuit filed by Julie Smith, whose 51-year-old husband, Jeffrey, is being treated in West Chester Hospital for COVID-19. The lawsuit was first reported by the Ohio Capital Journal . Jeffrey has been in the hospital since July 15, and as his condition declined, his wife Julie began investigating alternative treatments.