- Scottish GP Iain Kerr said he helped four of his patients to end their lives
- Gave an elderly couple enough sleeping pills to allow them to kill themselves
- Reportedly told another pensioner how many antidepressants to take to die
- Said was in the patients' interests and called for assisted suicide to be legal
By Emma Innes
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Retired GP Dr Iain Kerr has admitted giving an elderly couple a prescription for sleeping tablets so they could kill themselves
A retired Scottish GP has told how he helped four of his patients to end their lives.
Dr Iain Kerr told The Herald newspaper he had given an elderly couple a prescription for sleeping tablets so they could kill themselves together.
The 66-year-old is also reported to have told another pensioner how many antidepressants he would need to take to end his life before visiting him while the drugs took effect.
Dr Kerr, who used to work at the Williamwood Medical Centre in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, insisted he believed his actions at the time were in the best interest of the patients.
He told the paper: 'I think there should be a change in the law because my personal experience is that there are people suffering distressing symptoms at the end of life which cannot all be palliated, and while people should be offered all the available treatments, there may be times when their preferred course of action will be suicide or to be assisted to die.'
He added: 'I feel the law is out of step with what is socially acceptable to a large number of people.'
Dr Kerr told how a couple, who were both in their 80s, approached him in 1990 seeking help to end their lives. Medical problems meant they both struggled to leave their house.
The man had problems with his circulation, struggled to walk and had failing eyesight, while his wife was agoraphobic and would not leave the house without her husband.
Dr Kerr told The Herald: 'They had medical conditions which they felt impaired their quality of life to such an extent that they felt they did not want to go on.'
He stated: 'They asked for something that they could take in an overdose which would lead to their suicide.
'I said that I wanted them to tell their daughter what was going on and if she had no strenuous objections, then I would give them the prescription, which in fact I did.'
The retired GP said he got the drugs for the couple as he 'did not want their daughter to get into any difficulties or problems with it'.
On another occasion, he said, a pensioner suffering from chronic respiratory problems and poor bladder control had asked about the number of antidepressant tablets he would need to take to kill himself.
Dr Kerr, who used to work at the Williamwood Medical Centre in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, insisted he believed his actions at the time were in the best interest of the patients
After consulting with a colleague, he gave the man the information he had asked for.
Dr Kerr told the paper: 'He took the overdose and I went in to see him.
'He was still alive and I phoned his sister to tell her what had happened, and to say I was not planning to send him to hospital, and she was okay with that.'
The retired doctor insisted: 'On the occasions on which I took these actions, I was convinced that they were in the best interests of the patient.'
Dr Kerr was suspended from practising medicine for six months in 2008 after being found guilty of misconduct following a General Medical Council hearing.
That found that he had prescribed a businesswoman, only known as Patient A, with sodium amytal in 1998 'solely for the purpose of ending her life'.
Assisted suicide is already legal in Belgium, Luxemburg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and three American states.
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