Leonard Arthur - John Pearson

John Pearson

John Pearson was born on 28 June 1980. He had Down’s syndrome and was later found to have had additional abnormalities of his lung, heart and brain. Shortly after the birth, Dr Arthur talked to John Pearson’s parents and then wrote in the case notes, “Parents do not wish the baby to survive. Nursing care only.” He prescribed DF118 (an opiate based painkiller), to be given ‘as required’ in doses of 5 mg at four hourly intervals. The baby died three days later, on 1 July 1980, the cause of death being identified as bronchopneumonia as a result of Down’s syndrome.

Dr Arthur was subsequently charged with murder, but the possibility that the baby’s death was caused by his other defects caused the original charge to be reduced, during the trial, to attempted murder.