GP Gives Suicidal Patient Drugs for Overdose

A GP in the UK is accused of prescribing a suicidal elderly patient an overdose knowing that she wanted to die so as to not be a burden on her family. He's in the soup. From the story:

Dr Iain Kerr appeared before a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing in Manchester accused of prescribing sodium amytal sleeping tablets to the 87-year-old, known as Patient A, against official guidance. She later died of an overdose of three other drugs, including a dose of temazepam which the hearing was told he also gave her.

The woman had talked of taking her own life so as not to be a burden on her family, the GMC heard.

I am glad the authorities are pursuing the case, but if we pass assisted suicide legalization bills, I don't see how this very scenario can long be resisted generally. After all, if we have the right to choose the time, manner, and place of death with a doctor's help, why not also the reason?

Remember always: Terminal illness is not what assisted suicide is all about. That is the pretext, the bait if you will, to get people to accept the principle. The real goal--as Dutch doctors have shown by providing how-to-commit-suicide instructions for patients who don't legally qualify for active euthanasia--is death on demand.