 After the Adams trial, the Director of Public Prosecutions stated that he agreed with Devlin's direction to the jury on this point.Devlin clarified the principle in a lecture in 1962, saying that a medical treatment designed to relieve the pains of death was undoubtedly a proper treatment.However, several professionals in biomedical law have suggested that Devlin's proposition that a doctor whose primary intention is to relieve pain, even if life is incidentally shortened, is not guilty of murder provides a special defence in law for doctors only, and may be an example the reluctance of courts to convict doctors.