Propofol is a surgical anesthetic safely used only in a hospital operating room or a comparably equipped medical facility with continuous monitoring of the patient's heart rate and breathing. The idea of using propofol as a sleep aid in a private home, with a doctor occasionally looking in? Unthinkable, before Michael Jackson's death.

Now Dr. Conrad Murray has been convicted of manslaughter for his role in Jackson's death. Murray was supposed to be Jackson's personal doctor, a unique physician with only one patient, who was paid $150,000 a month by Jackson's concert agency to keep the singer healthy.