Chris Benoit Doctor Sentenced

Some possible justice came in the well-known double murder-suicide case of former WWE star Chris Benoit yesterday. Dr. Phil Astin, the personal doctor for Chris Benoit, was sentenced to 10 years in prison this past Tuesday in Georgia. Astin had plead guilty back in January to a 175-count federal indictment which alleged that he had written illegal drug prescriptions to known drug abusers for many years. Two of Astin's patient's died of drug overdose.

From MSN Foxsports.com:

"I take full responsibility," Astin told U.S. District Judge Jack Camp during a sentencing hearing that lasted more than two hours. "I am sorry I hurt so many lives. I was thinking that I was looking after my patients."

Prosecutors said Chris Benoit, a wrestler for Stamford, Conn.-based World Wrestling Entertainment, and his wife, Nancy, were not the two patients who died.

The 19 patients in the indictment are identified only by their initials because of privacy rules. C.B. and N.B. were among the patients listed, but Assistant U.S. Attorney John Horn would not say whether that referred to the Benoits. Both abused prescription drugs, Horn said.

While the story continues to be sad and a dark spot on the WWE no matter how you look at it, there is some justice here. Hopefully other underhanded doctors will take note and think twice before prescribing illegal drugs to patients, and the WWE will continue to enforce its Wellness Policy better by the day. It's definitely up to an individual to choose whether to take a drug or not, a doctor to choose to prescribe them in a professional manner, and the WWE to keep an eye on how its superstar athletes are being treated medically. WWE has no problems showing slideshow and video stories on WWE.com of how various wrestlers' surgeries play out. In that case they should have no problem performing the highest scrutiny background checks on the doctors working with their sports entertainers.