A doctor was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the case of a woman who died after he performed an abortion on her.
-- From "Mass. doc gets 6 months in abortion patient death" by Denise Lavoie, Associated press 9/15/10
Dr. Rapin Osathanondh was sentenced in the 2007 death of 22-year-old Laura Hope Smith. He pleaded guilty in a Massachusetts court Monday, just as his trial was about to begin.
Smith was 13 weeks pregnant when she went to see Osathanondh for an abortion in his Cape Cod office. She was pronounced dead later that day.
Prosecutors charged Osathanondh with manslaughter, alleging that he failed to monitor her while she was under anesthesia, delayed calling 911 when her heart stopped, and later lied to try to cover up his actions.
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From "Doctor sentenced to jail in abortion death case" by Karen Jeffrey, Cape Cod Times 9/15/10
Rapin Osathanondh, 67, will serve at least three months in jail as a result of a plea negotiated Monday between his attorneys and Cape and Islands First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny. Osathanondh will serve that time in the Dukes County Jail in Edgartown, according to the plea agreement. He was sentenced to a 2½-year jail term with six months to serve. However, the plea agreement allows him out on parole after serving three months.
Osathanondh also settled a civil suit, agreeing to pay the victim's parents, Tom and Eileen Smith of Sandwich, $2 million. "Nobody won. Laura got justice, but it's a tragedy all the way around," Eileen Smith said.
Tom Smith said that despite Osathanondh's affiliation with Harvard University he had "practiced Third World medicine" on patients like his daughter. Osathanondh was a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health at the time of Smith's abortion.
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Also read, Several Abortionists Barred in Two States
