GP ‘Said He Was in Euthanasia Society’

A SCOTS GP in favour of assisted suicide told patients he belonged to the Euthanasia Society , a hearing was told yesterday.

When interviewed by police, Dr Iain Kerr, who practises in Clarkston, admitted he had mentioned being a member of the society – even though he wasn’t – “because it gives patients the choice of discussing end-of-life matters”.

The 61-year-old is accused by the General Medical Council of supplying an elderly patient with sleeping tablets so she could take her own life. She later killed herself with other drugs.

Dr Kerr, who lives in Newton Mearns, was initially interviewed by police after his prescription of the drug sodium amytal to the OAP emerged during his annual appraisal.

Excerpts of the 2005 interview were read out during the hearing in Manchester.

Dr Kerr told police: “If people expressed anxiety about how the end would be, I’d tell them I was a member of the Euthanasia Society, or had been, and leave it at that and if they decided that’s good news, fine, and if they ignored it I would say that’s fine as well.”

The female pensioner, referred to as Patient A, was experiencing “a lot of pain” when she asked for tablets to end her life, Dr Kerr told the police.

Dr Kerr explained to the officer: “She said, ‘Will you give me something that I can take if things get too bad’, and I said yes.” But the GP said he had never administered an injection to help someone die.

The health board also began to examine Dr Kerr’s practices when psychiatrist Dr Alexander Cooper alerted them to a letter he had received from the GP later the same year.

This note, referring to Patient A, stated: “She discussed suicide with me and I’ve been in the habit of supplying her with barbiturate tablets which would assist her in her endeavour.”

Dr Cooper told the GMC:

“I t appeared to me to be an open admission of involvement in assisted suicide.”

Patient A died after taking an overdose, including the sedative temazepam, on December 12, 2005. She had survived a suicide attempt with the same drug less than two weeks earlier.

The GMC say Dr Kerr prescribed more temazepam to Patient A two days after this failed bid to take her life.

The hearing resumes tomorrow.

Originally published by Newsquest Media Group.

(c) 2008 Evening Times; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.