UK Doctor Who Euthanized Patients Should Be Imprisoned

Dr Howard Martin, once feared to be a “second Harold Shipman” [a UK physician mass murderer], told The Daily Telegraph that he gave what proved to be fatal doses of painkillers to elderly and terminally ill patients. But he said he only acted out of “Christian compassion” and was merely trying to limit their suffering rather than “playing God”.  He disclosed that, in two cases, he hastened the deaths of patients without their permission, while one of those to whom he administered a final injection was his son, Paul, 31, when he was dying from cancer in May 1988.

Dr Martin, 75, spoke out as the General Medical Council struck him off for professional misconduct, ruling that he had hastened the deaths of 18 patients in “egregious, despicable and dangerous” conduct. He accepted that his confession put him at risk of “spending the rest of my life in prison” if it prompted police to reopen his case…But Dr Martin said he decided to speak out to call for reform of a system of care, which – he claims – takes the “soft” option of confining the terminally ill to hospitals and hospices rather than allowing them the “dignity” of dying at home with their loved ones.