WHATEVER verdict was delivered in the case of Dr Howard Martin, there would have been deep sadness.

The fact that he has been cleared of murdering three of his patients with morphine overdoses is clearly a cause for celebration for a man who has spent nearly 50 years caring for others.

But there is understandable anguish for the families of Harry Gittens, Stanley Weldon and Frank Moss, who have found themselves at the centre of a tragic and high profile case.

Above all else, the trial at Teesside Crown Court has underlined the terrible dilemma doctors face in their daily work. Somehow, they must find the correct line between relieving pain and hastening death.

To stay within the law, a doctor's intent when administering drugs must be to ease the pain rather than hasten death. But where should the line be drawn when every human being's needs are different?

Consequently, any doctor dealing with a terminally ill patient must run the risk of falling on the wrong side of the law.

We do not pretend to know the answers because we have never had to make the kind of momentous decision involved. We do not seek to underestimate the feelings of the bereaved families, or criticise the decision to prosecute Dr Martin.

We simply sympathise with the difficulties faced by doctors everywhere because, in many ways, they simply cannot win.