Your life in their hands?

Calton is very concerned to learn that the Procurator Fiscal decided that it was not in the public interest to prosecute Dr Iain Kerr for helping patients end their own lives by prescribing drugs and giving advice on what constituted a fatal overdose. Although Dr Kerr insisted that the families of the patients concerned be consulted, it is clear that no second medical opinion was sought about whether the patients were in their right mind and not acting under any undue influence - basic safeguards which were included in Margo MacDonald's 2010 End of Life (Assistance) bill. Instead, Dr Kerr seems to have acted as both judge and jury on the patients' mental state. This is extremely dangerous, and the fact that the GMC suspended Dr Kerr for 6 months because his actions were, among other things, "not in your patient's best interest" speaks for itself. Calton does not support Margo's repeated attempts to legalise assisted suicide but he recognises that at least her bills have some built-in safeguards. There is absolutely no place in our society for GPs to be taking the law into their own hands and making such life or death decisions on their own. In Calton's opinion it was very much in the public interest for Dr Kerr to have been prosecuted and the same goes for any other GP thinking of emulating him.