GP at Centre of Suicide Row Suspended

Posted on: Friday, 25 July 2008, 06:00 CDT By Lyndsay Moss Health Correspondent CAMPAIGNERS yesterday called for a change in the law to allow patients to ask for help to end their lives, after a Scottish GP was suspended for prescribing sleeping pills to an elderly woman so she could kill herself. Dr Iain Kerr, a family doctor in Glasgow, was found guilty of misconduct after prescribing the pills to an elderly patient with osteoporosis, who went on to kill herself using other drugs. Yesterday, the General Medical Council (GMC) suspended the 61- year-old from practising medicine for six months after a two-week hearing in Manchester. Campaigners said the case highlighted the "moral ambiguity" of cases where patients ask for help to end their lives But the medical profession stood firm, saying the role of doctors was to protect... [read full story]