Two male nurses apparently acting independent of each other are charged with killing at least 16 patients in Uruguay.

Both of the nurses, age 39 and 46, were operating out of hospitals in the capital city of Montevideo and justified their actions as humane.  They did not want to see their patients suffering though some of the patients were not facing terminal illness. 

One nurse is charged with five murders the other with 11 aggravated homicides.  Uruguayan authorities believe the nurses murdered their patients by overdosing them on morphine and/or injecting air bubbles into their blood stream.

One of the defense attorneys labeled these as “mercy” killings and said “After 20 years in intensive care, or constant stress on the edge of life and death, he could not take it anymore.”

The suspects remain unidentified.