Suicide GP insists 'law is an ass'

Published on Friday 18 July 2008 22:05

A GP who gave sleeping pills to a patient so she could kill herself, branded the law an "ass" yesterday.

Dr Iain Kerr quoted Charles Dickens to justify his actions at his General Medical Council misconduct hearing.

He gave the pills to an 87-year-old woman as an "insurance policy" after she expressed fears about how she would die.

The Glasgow GP, who said he was once a member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Scotland, said: "In my opinion sometimes the law of the land is out of step with what might be called natural justice or social justice or with what a significant minority of people think. There have been times when owning slaves was legal and women did not have the right to vote and these things we now think of as untenable.

"I think when dealing with someone holding a rational view of the circumstances in which they want to end their life, it was my duty to at least consider whether he or she had a reasonable opinion and that it was my duty to assist if I thought I agreed with that patient's assessment."

He prescribed the former businesswoman, known as Patient A, with 30 sodium amytal sleeping pills in 1998. Dr Kerr said: "It allowed her control that she didn't have to worry about what would happen to her."

Patient A disposed of the sleeping pills seven years later, when Dr Kerr was investigated following his remarks in an appraisal that his "achievements" included helping patients at the end of their lives.

Yesterday he stood by comments he made during the appraisal that "the law is an ass".

The woman killed herself in December 2005, within two weeks of making a suicide attempt, using Temazepam prescribed by Dr Kerr.

The hearing continues.