House may be a brilliant doctor and a genius, but there are plenty of times throughout House that he does unspeakably cruel and horrible things to his peers, his patients, and his closest friends. House is among the most singular and compelling medical dramas on TV. The series follows Dr. Gregory House, a gifted diagnostician who is capable of diagnosing the world's most extraordinary, rare, and complex illnesses. However, the great tragedy of House is the fact that he appears devoid of humanity and empathy at times.

House is actually a loose adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, with House taking on the role of the titular genius detective. Both characters are obsessed with puzzles, and solving a case to the point that the human element feels like a nuisance that gets in the way. Of course, with House being a medical doctor, treating patients and working with a large staff, this creates problems, and while House's best behavior is still viewed as rude and inconsiderate, there are times when he is downright horrible in his approach.

10 His Attempt To "Unwittingly" Kill Chase

House Season 5, Episode 22: "House Divided"

House is generally irritated by others. While he relies on his team to be a sounding board, he usually struggles to engage with his team on any human level. And when those within his team began to form relationships that excluded House from being the center of attention, the tortured genius took it hard. In season 5, House's favorite fellow, Dr. Robert Chase, is preparing to get married, and he enjoys a bachelor party with some near and dear friends, House being among them.

However, while House begrudgingly attends, and even brings a gift in the form of an exotic dancer, things go south when Chase has an intense allergic reaction that almost kills him. As it turns out, the dancer used strawberry-infused lotion, and when Chase took a shot out of her navel, his intense strawberry allergy kicked in. While for most, this would be a simple, but terrible mistake, House doesn't miss things. And the episode reveals that he did actually know about both the allergy and the lotion, but he may have forgotten that he knew. It doesn't add up, and it's terrible behavior from House.

9 Blowing Up Expensive Medical Equipment With A Corpse

House Season 2, Episode 19: "House vs. God"

House played fast and loose with rules, respect, and any sort of decency. When a patient arrived in the hospital with a gunshot wound, House pushed to get them an MRI scan on the patient, but the request was rejected due to the bullets' magnetic properties. In an MRI machine, powerful magnets are used in order to get a detailed scan of the internal workings of the body, but any fragments of metal can cause huge problems. But House disputed that the bullets may not be magnetic.

He then proceeds to shoot a corpse in the head, then places them in the machine, which obviously causes the machine to break down, and puts this expensive piece of equipment out of commission. On the face of it, House should be well aware that the metals in a bullet are likely to be magnetic, but in order to prove a point and be defiant, he defiles a dead body, destroys the machine that he needs for both himself and everyone else at the hospital, and leaves a trail of disaster in his wake.

8 Pushing For A Series Of Intense, Invasive Tests On A Girl Who Couldn't Feel Pain

House Season 3, Episode 14: "Insensitive"

As early as season 3, House's obsession with solving puzzles can be seen when he has the rare opportunity to examine a patient who has no ability to feel pain. A young woman enters the hospital looking for answers about this genetic anomaly, but House is quick to take advantage of the situation. Yes, she may be incapable of feeling pain, but that doesn't mean his actions and inattentiveness won't cause permanent, lasting damage.

House pushes the limits, orders a series of unnecessary tests, and essentially abuses this patient for the sake of scientific discovery. But it highlights his immense lack of care, his indifference to patients, and his overriding obsession with understanding the human body. It's hard to defend his position and brilliance when the result is essentially abusive behavior that would continue to get him in trouble as the show progressed.

7 Giving The Gun Back To The Enraged Patient

House Season 5, Episode 9: "Last Resort"

Later in the series, House and his team come face to face with death when an ill man wielding a gun pushes his way into Cuddy's office and forces the team to treat and diagnose him. Having been ill for some time, and no doctors being able to offer clear advice about what was wrong, the man was driven to this desperate position, where he took the doctors' hostage at gunpoint. However, with his vulnerable position, there were opportunities to put a stop to this criminal behavior.

At one point, House orders the patient to take a CT scan, which requires him to leave the gun behind, in House's possession. This is the perfect opportunity to take the gun, and if House had kept attempting to treat him, he could have eliminated the dangerous element. However, to ensure the "game" continues and House gets his chance to solve this mystery case, he hands the gun back. This leads to other of his team nearly dying, and is genuinely one of the most unhinged things House has ever done.

6 Continuing To Use Wilson While He Was Grieving The Death Of Amber

House Season 5 And Beyond

Throughout the entire run of House, House's nearest and dearest friend struggled to keep their relationship going. Dr. James Wilson cared deeply about his friend, believing that beneath his flawed and tough exterior, House was someone who cared deeply, and was worth the effort. While there were moments that appeared to this idea with House treating patients Wilson referred as a favor, for the most part, House was a terrible friend.

He used Wilson's name and signature to get his drugs, he let Wilson take the fall for his attitude, leading to potentially being fired, and he pushed his so-called friend beyond reason. However, when House's reckless ways lead to Amber dying, after she tried to keep her boyfriend's best friend out of harms way, House fails to step up for his grieving friend. Instead, House is racked with his own guilt, pushes his friend in mean-spirited ways, and severs their connection in irreparable ways.

5 Telling A Bulimic Patient They Look Cute Thin

House Season 3, Episode 15: "Half-Wit"

House could be incredibly cold to his patients, and fortunately, he made an effort to keep his distance from them for the most part. While most doctors might try to develop their bedside manner, and tend to their patients' needs as best they can, House did not have the patience, or the grace to engage in kind and decent communication with the people he was trying to heal.

This is perhaps best seen in one moment when House meets a young girl who struggles with bulimia, and rather than moving along and saying nothing, he takes the opportunity to make a cruel remark that will likely stick in the girl's brain for decades to come. Looking at her physically weakened body, he remarks that she looks cute thin. There is no reason for this comment, and instead it shows his cruelty and willingness to manipulate and cause harm to people.

4 Treating Sick Babies With Different Treatments Knowing Some Would Die

House Season 1, Episode 4: "Maternity"

Early in House Season 1, the cold and calculated approach he takes to treating patients is revealed in a case where several babies around the hospital develop an intense and lethal illness. After trying and failing to diagnose the disease for an extended period, House opts to test his two best theories by treating two of the babies with these opposite treatments. However, this means that the baby who receives the wrong treatment will almost certainly die.

Of course he manages to find the right cure, and treat the other sick children, but the fact remains that he assigned a baby to death in order to prove a hypothesis. It's a challenging moral dilemma, because more lives were saved than lost, but this kind of response would never be approved with appropriate supervision, and House's actions were incredibly cold.

3 House Is Indifferent To A Patient's Suicide Attempts And Pain

House Season 5, Episode 12: "Painless"

In this fifth season episode, House is confronted by a patient who repeatedly attempts to take his own life. House spends some time working with the patient, but he loses interest. The reality of the patients' chronic pain is not interesting, and considering House is in constant pain, he finds himself indifferent to the suffering.

Despite the team desperately trying to help, and the pleading of the patient's wife, House cannot even attempt to muster the semblance of caring. Instead, his attitude literally culminates in House saying "just let him die." After the wife tires of pleading and getting nowhere, she asks that House release her husband so they can go home, and it can end, clearly insinuating what will happen next. House signs the papers, and he moves on with his life, never thinking about the incident again.

2 Strangling A Patient Who Wanted To Die

House Season 8, Episode 21: "Holding On"

However, it does not appear that House is always so indifferent to such things. Shortly after the previous incident, House loses one of his team , Dr. Lawrence Kutner to suicide. This event rocked House's world, and he struggled to make sense of what happened and the fact that he didn't see any signs. Several seasons later, House meets another patient who is ready to give up their fight for life, and instead of indifference, House goes in another direction.

House grabs the man by the throat, and squeezes, hard. He strangles the man in his bed, and as he gasps for breath, and tries to fight off House, House simply shouts at the man that he doesn't really want to die, otherwise he would be struggling. House is only stopped when one of his team arrives and hits him hard over the head, but it's clear House has lost his grip and should no longer be working with patients in any real capacity.

1 Driving A Car Into Cuddy's Dining Room

House Season 7, Episode 23: "Moving On"

Finally, House engages in a romantic relationship with his long-time colleague, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, after the pair had flirted and teased at a romance for so long. However, due to his prolonged issues, and his struggle to stay clean from his drug use, their relationship is strained. After some ups and downs, the pair take a break amicably, but when House tries to return a hairbrush and spots Cuddy having dinner with another man and her sister, House assumes the worst.

Rather than embracing his sadness and pain, House decides to lash out. He does this by getting back into his car, kicking out his friend Wilson, and then driving fast into the dining room of Cuddy's home. Fortunately, everyone had moved out of the room moments before, but House's actions are irredeemable, and excessively violent and cruel. It just goes to show how intense and dangerous House could be, and his willingness to behave in cruel, awful ways throughout House's run.