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German police have announced that they have opened an investigation against a doctor in the city of Essen (west) in relation to the fatal deaths of two seriously ill patients infected by the new coronavirus, Reuters reports on Friday.
The 44-year-old doctor, who has worked at Essen University Hospital since February, is suspected of killing two men, aged 47 and 50, who were hospitalized in intensive care with very severe forms of the disease.
According to the police, the doctor, who was arrested on Wednesday, confessed to one of the crimes and said he wanted to alleviate the suffering of the patient and his relatives.
The daily Bild reported that the doctor informed the families of the patients before killing them with a lethal injection.
In Germany, patients can seek help to end their lives, according to a court ruling last year. However, it is not clear if this happened to the doctor.
All forms of assisted life-interruption are a particularly sensitive topic in Germany, given the legacy of the Holocaust, in which the Nazi regime killed six million Jews and performed inhumane experiments on some of them.
The Essen hospital mentioned that the doctor in question had been suspended.
The industrial region in which the city of Essen is located is currently one of the areas of Germany most affected by the new coronavirus, with 166 cases diagnosed per 100,000 inhabitants in the last week, well above the government threshold of 50.
