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Arrest me, says GP who paid for patient’s suicide
28 Jul 2009
A doctor who helped pay for a London businessman to commit suicide today called on police to arrest him.
Michael Irwin, 77, says he wants to become a "martyr" to highlight the plight of relatives who face 14 years in jail for helping someone kill themselves.
The retired GP says he has evidence for the police which includes a cheque book counterfoil showing he paid £1,500 towards the cost of funding Raymond Cutkelvin's death. Such a payment is a criminal offence under British law.
He told the Standard: "I've done this before (help assisted suicide) and I would do it again if someone is terminally ill. It's so wrong that people have to travel abroad to die when they could die here at home with dignity. I say to the police 'arrest me'.''
His bid to be prosecuted will increase pressure on the Government which has so far resisted attempts for assisted suicide to become legal in the UK.
It comes as Britain's highest court will rule this Thursday on the rights of relatives to travel to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich to help terminally ill patients die.
At least 115 Britons have killed themselves at the clinic watched by friends and family. It is not thought anyone has been prosecuted. Dr Irwin is being investigated over the death of Mr Cutkelvin, 58, from Hackney, who killed himself at the Dignitas clinic in 2007. Scotland Yard confirmed that officers will interview him this Friday at Shoreditch police station.
Dr Irwin, from Surrey, said he intended to hand over details of his involvement in the case. He will also give police his diary which provides full details of the trip to the Zurich clinic including how it was organised and how he took his life.
They took him in for questioning after he revealed he had watched Mr Cutkelvin die. Officers released him on police bail until September.
Two weeks ago conductor Sir Edward Downes took his life in a double suicide with his terminally ill wife Joan.
Dr Irwin has been investigated over his involvement in helping British people die abroad before. In 2003, the right to die campaigner admitted he had planned to help cancer sufferer Patrick Kneen die. Mr Kneen was too ill to hold the pills which Dr Irwin provided him with. Surrey police kept him on police bail for three months.
He also spent more than two years under investigation after admitting accompanying a woman, who had the severe degenerative disease multiple system atrophy, from Glasgow to Zurich. May Murray took a lethal dose of barbiturates at an apartment used by Dignitas. But police again did not press charges because they had insufficient evidence to take the case further.
This latest police investigation will further fuel the debate over the right of terminally ill people to be helped to take their own lives. Former cabinet minister Lord Falconer is among those who back a change in the law so relatives do not face prosecution for helping loved ones to die. His attempt to force a change in the law failed after it did not gain enough support in the House of Lords.
Last week the Royal College of Nursing said it was taking a “neutral” position for the first time on the issue of right-to-die instead of actively opposing assisted suicide. But there is still massive opposition for a change in the law with critics arguing the legalisation of assisted suicide would put pressure on old people to end their lives.
Dr Irwin said there was no evidence of this happening from countries including the Netherlands and states such as Oregon in the US which had relaxed their right-to-die laws.
He said: “There is no evidence that people with a disability or even the elderly have been subjected to pressures to end their lives.
“Lord Falconer's amendment was a good one because it would have removed the additional suffering from those whose relatives are forced to end their lives abroad because of Britain's draconian laws.”
Reader views (14)
Alan, Dr Irwin, You have my full support as I worked with Alan and I know how much He loved Raymond. Your both very strong and brave. My thoughts and support is with you.
- Nikky Smith, Essex, UK, 04/08/2009 17:50
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If Dr urwin was my GP, as a severely disabled person,I'd do my best to avoid him. The lives of vlnerable people are only safe as long as assisted suicide and euthanasia remain illegal. We should be paying more for better end of life care than pourin moey into assisted suicide.
- Sue Jamieson, Basildon, England., 30/07/2009 01:10
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You see that even in the UK there are courageous physicians, who care more on the right to self-determination of fellow humansn then the law.
Michael Irwin shows again that he is a real compassionate doctor.
Be happy with this kind of citycens in your country!
- Aycke Smook, Boardmember Of Wfrtds And Ergo Oregon Usa, Bergen aan Zee , The Netherlands, 29/07/2009 12:01
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A very brave man. How many of us who have a strong belief that people have the right to choose would risk their liberty and livelihood in this way?
Kerry, it sounds as though you have only read the headline and not the article. There is no evidence in countries that do not have anti-assisted suicide laws that pressure is being put on the vulnerable -- it is all unwarranted speculation.
- Shirley, Birmingham, UK, 29/07/2009 11:19
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Michael, congratulations for putting your freedom on the line for a principle. Would that there were many more of you. Such bravery is rare indeed.
- Mary Gallnor, Kensington Gardens 5068 Australia, 29/07/2009 05:42
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I see irwin wants to be a martyr, well, arrest him,and punish him as the law requires.
When we have euthenasia, how long before relatives start pressurizing people to commit suicide for gain? how long before dodgy doctors do it to harvest organs for profitable transplants, or authorities to start getting rid of people it doesn't like, the weak, the poor, the halt and the lame, children with severe and therefore expensive illnesses. Shall i go on? this needs a serious debate, not the hysterical nonsense spouted by the pro lobby, or the ramblings of the pro life religious nutters. serious debate people please. Do Dignitas do it for nothing, No? I thought not.
- Kerry Trubee, Purley, 28/07/2009 22:24
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High time we had a proper voluntary euthanasia law here, as in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the US states of Oregon and Washington, and elsewhere. But the bishops in the Lords keep getting in the way even of the smallest reform no matter how stringent the safegaurds. The churches distort whatever is proposed, talking of slippery slopes as if we were all lemmings and imposing on all of us by law what ought to be their own choice for their own lives - that is, the risk of dying without dignity, possibly in uncontrollable pain, when life has ceased to be of any value to us at all.
- David Pollock, Stoke Newington, 28/07/2009 14:08
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Claudine, I think you need to write your messages in lower case rather than caps. It makes you sound VERY ANGRY and possibly HYSTERICAL!
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx, 28/07/2009 13:39
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I respect and thank Dr. Irwin for his courage. I only hope he and others like him manage to get the laws on assisted suicide changed to the extent that terminally ill patients will no longer have to travel to Zurich, but will be able to die in peace in their own homes.
- Clarissa, Paris, France, 28/07/2009 13:13
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Claudine (Netherlands): I think you should see a doctor.
- Alan, London, 28/07/2009 12:18
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I believe if one is terminally sick, with the right mind, you should decide your own fate.
- Rod, Epping, UK, 28/07/2009 11:50
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THIS IS SO SO TYPICAL OF THE MANY IMMORAL BRITISH LAWS WHICH VIOLATE THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF MILLIONS DECENT,INNOCENT & VULNERABLE PEOPLE WHOM THEY ALSO INCARCERATE, TORTURE & POISON SLOWLY IN THEIR PSYCHIATRIC CONCENTRATION CAMPS CALLED'HOSPITALS'WITH CHEMICALS ETC OF MASS DESTRUCTION, WHILE THE DANGEROUS THUGGING GANGSTERS ARE ALLOWED FREE REIGN TO TERRORISE THE PEOPLE & COMMUNITIES. WHY DO THEY NOT USE THEIR MENTAL "HEALTH" ACT ON THESE THUGS INSTEAD AND THEY MUST STOP FORCING THE GOOD & DECENT DOCTORS TO IMPLEMENT THEIR INHUMANE LAWS & PRACTICES. WHY IS IT THAT IF ONE CHOOSES A HUMANE WAY OF ENDING ONES OWN LIFE, ARE ONE & THE HELPERS PUNISHED AND CRIMINALIZED, WHILE THE REAL EVIL PSYCHIATRISTS & DOCTORS ARE SLOWLY MURDERING INNOCENT, DECENT & VULNERABLE PEOPLE IN THE NAME OF PSYCHIATRY AND MENTAL "HEALTH" ACTS???
IT REALLY PROVES HOW UPSIDE DOWN THE GOVERNMENTS AND ITS TOO MANY USELESS LAW MAKERS ESPECIALLY ARE. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD ALL BE PROSECUTED AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURTS OF JUSTICE FOR GROSS & SYSTEMATIC HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND VIOLATIONS AGAINST DECENT, INNOCENT & VULNERABLE VICTIMS OF CRIME!
- Claudine Fourie, Venlo, Netherlands, 28/07/2009 11:26
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Adam ,Harrow,UK. O come on Adam don't be so prejudice, in the name of fair play and equality,you pay for those 3 and i will pay for Thacher,Cameron,and Osborne, and as a special treat i will pay for all the Bishops in the house of Lords to,hows that!
- Kev, London-UK, 28/07/2009 11:22
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Can we pay for George Galloway, Ken Livingstone & Gordon Brown to travel to Digitas for a one way trip?
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 28/07/2009 10:13
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