Scenario

• 1. A patient is seriously injured in a car accident caused by a reckless motor cyclist. An ambulance is called to the scene to fetch the patient. The patient is put into the ambulance, which the leaves for the hospital. On the way to the hospital, while speeding through a red light at an intersection, the ambulance collides with a car. The ambulance driver and patient are killed.

–If you apply the ‘but for’ test, who is responsible for the patient’s death? The reckless motor cyclist who caused the original car accident? Or, the ambulance driver who went through the red light?

• 2. A patient is given a medicine which must not be taken with cheese –neither the doctor nor the pharmacist warn her about the dangers of eating cheese. Her husband makes a toasted cheese sandwich for her, which causes her to become very depressed and she commits suicide.

–If you apply the ‘but for’ test, who is responsible for her death? The doctor and pharmacist for not warning her about eating cheese? Or, the patient’s husband for giving her a toasted cheese sandwich to eat?