Doc: I’m planning my death even though I’m well
Campaigner’s assisted suicide bid
A RETIRED GP and assisted suicide campaigner is planning his own death because he feels he is past his “sell-by date”.
When he is ready to go, Michael Irwin wants a fellow doctor to give him medication to take his pain away, put him slowly into a coma and hasten his death.
Dr Irwin, 86, is not terminally ill but feels he is on “borrowed time” due to his age, difficulty walking, progressive kidney failure and raised blood pressure.
The dad-of-three, of Surrey, said: “I am now existing beyond my sell-by date. I would not wait to the bitter end, with suffering becoming more and more unbearable.” Dr Irwin, who has accompanied patients to assisted suicide clinics in Switzerland, believes doctors are already helping patients to die by his preferred method of “continuous deep sedation”. But they have to justify it on grounds of pain relief and he is calling for rules to be changed so they do not fear disciplinary action. The General Medical Council said: “For advice on whether deep sedation would be clinically appropriate or lawful, doctors would need to seek advice from clinical and legal experts.”