GP Gives Suicidal Patient Drugs for Overdose

A GP in the UK is accused of prescribing a suicidal elderly patient an overdose knowing that she wanted to die so as to not be a burden on her family. He’s in the soup. From the story:

Dr Iain Kerr appeared before a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing in Manchester accused of prescribing sodium amytal sleeping tablets to the 87-year-old, known as Patient A, against official guidance. She later died of an overdose of three other drugs, including a dose of temazepam which the hearing was told he also gave her.

The woman had talked of taking her own life so as not to be a burden on her family, the GMC heard.

I am glad the authorities are pursuing the case, but if we pass assisted suicide legalization bills, I don’t see how this very scenario can long be resisted generally. After all, if we have the right to choose the time, manner, and place of death with a doctor’s help, why not also the reason?

Remember always: Terminal illness is not what assisted suicide is all about. That is the pretext, the bait if you will, to get people to accept the principle. The real goal—as Dutch doctors have shown by providing how-to-commit-suicide instructions for patients who don’t legally qualify for active euthanasia—is death on demand.

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