GLASGOW, Scotland, March 13 (UPI) -- A retired Scottish doctor has admitted he helped three ailing elderly patients, a couple and a man, end their lives.
Dr. Iain Kerr, who practiced in Clarkston, a Glasgow suburb, told The (Glasgow) Herald the deaths were reported to the procurator fiscal, who decided not to prosecute. He said he told patients they had to discuss their plans with their families before he prescribed a lethal dose of medicine or advised them on what would kill them.
"The people involved felt that life had become intolerable for them for one reason or another," Kerr said. "These were people who I thought had mental capacity, who had looked at the options, who had decided what was the best course of action for them and come to this conclusion."
The General Medical Council suspended Kerr for six months in 2005 for prescribing sleeping pills for an elderly woman who used them to take her own life.
Margo MacDonald, a member of the Scottish Parliament who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has re-introduced a bill that would legalize assisted suicide. The first time around, it was rejected on an 85-16 vote.
