Culotta had been treating Lagasse with narcotics for weeks because she had pain and anxiety from her spreading cancer, so he knew her tolerance was high. It would take a large amount of morphine, he felt, to relieve her gasping and suffering. It would also, he believed, undoubtedly hasten her death. While she and her daughter had not agreed to a DNR order, he, as her doctor, had felt during her hospitalization that her therapeutic options were limited, and a central goal of his care was keeping her pain and anxiety in check.
