Scenario

• A patient is seriously injured in a motor collision through the negligent driving of another driver. The patient is kept alive by being connected to a respirator. After six months, the prognosis is that he will never recover, and that further treatment using the respirator is futile. Accordingly, after following the correct hospital protocols, the patient is disconnected from the ventilator and dies. The person who drove negligently and injured the patient is now charged with manslaughter – instead of the original charge of reckless driving. He argues that he cannot be charged with manslaughter, because he did not cause the death of the patient – the doctors caused the patient’s death by withdrawing the ventilator.

–Who legally caused the death of the patient? The original person who drove negligently, or the doctors who withdrew the respirator?