§ 1-21 Proximate Cause—medical Procedures

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Criminal (SCBar) (2023 Ed.)

§ 1-21 Proximate Cause—Medical Procedures

If the victim in this case was properly diagnosed as dead as the proximate result of the gunshot wound [knife wound, etc.], then no subsequent medical procedure, such as organ removal, would be deemed a cause of death.

If the victim's death was prematurely pronounced due to the negligence of a medical practitioner or practitioners, the subsequent procedures may have been a cause of death, but that negligence would not constitute a superseding cause of death, relieving the defendant of liability.

If however, the pronouncements of death were premature due to the gross negligence or the intentional wrongdoing, that is, the reckless or willful wrongdoing, of a medical practitioner or practitioners, as determined by a grave deviation or gross dilation from accepted medical practices, or disregard for legally cognizable criteria for...