The Medical journal of Australia
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The antinausea drug combination, doxylamine/dicyclomine/pyridoxine (Debendox or Bendectin [US] ), has been withdrawn from the market because of litigation based upon charges that it causes congenital limb defects. To investigate this allegation, the pregnancy histories of mothers of 155 limb-deficient children, born between 1970 and 1981, have been compared with those of mothers of 273 matched normal controls. ⋯ The relative risk of limb deficiency in children of mothers exposed to this drug is estimated to be 1.1 with confidence limits of 0.8-1.5. No risk of congenital limb defects was found to be associated with the use of this drug.
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The withdrawal of all nourishment and hydration from a patient who had suffered severe brain damage as a result of a cardiorespiratory arrest was recently held by a Californian court of appeal not to constitute an unlawful killing. The possible implications of this decision, both at common law and under the various criminal codes in Australia, are considered.