Terminally sick children secretly given deadly overdoses
Terminally sick children secretly given deadly overdoses by British doctors in illegal mercy killings, claims retired GP
British doctors have secretly killed terminally sick children by giving them ‘huge’ overdoses of painkillers, it was claimed yesterday.
Hours after Belgium became the first country in the world to allow the euthanasia of children, a retired GP suggested it was already happening, informally, in Britain.
Dr Michael Irwin told an LBC Radio debate: ‘It has happened in this country, very quietly. I know of one or two children over the last few years.’
He added: ‘It has been done under the pretext of what we call Double Effect where the child has been given huge doses of painkillers and so on, in order to relieve discomfort, pain and other symptoms.’
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, last night vowed to investigate but said he was not aware of specific cases.
He told the Mirror: ‘I will look into the instances and into whether the law has been broken, and whether the law has been followed in an appropriate way.’
Dr Irwin is a euthanasia campaigner who says he’s helped a number of people died at Switzerland’s Dignitas clinic, activities which have earned him the sobriquet Dr Death.
He has been investigated in the past over assisted suicide – an offence carrying a 14-year jail sentence – but has never been arrested.
Assisted suicide is where doctors help patients prepare to take their own lives, while euthanasia is where doctors deliberately take the lives of patients after being given permission.
Dr Irwin told the Mirror last night that he was not worried his comments would lead to a police investigation.
‘If the police ask me who the paediatricians are, I’ll say ‘Sorry, chum, I can’t tell you’,’ he said. Anti-euthanasia campaigners demanded an investigation into the claims.
Building of the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic, near Zurich: Assisted suicide is where doctors help patients to take their own lives, while euthanasia is where doctors take the lives of patients after being given permission
Dr Peter Saunders, of the Care Not Killing Alliance, told the Mirror: ‘There may be nothing in this. But if a doctor has intentionally taken the life of a child in the UK, then that is murder because euthanasia is illegal under British law.’
Dr Irwin’s comments came as the news that Belgium had extended euthanasia to children was met with revulsion across the world, but only minor ripples of dissent among Belgians.
‘Belgium has allowed the killing on demand of terminally ill children and has headed for the ethical abyss. A state which allows something like this is a failing state,’ the conservative German daily Die Welt screamed in a column.
The law covering euthanasia of minors is different to the broader euthanasia law. Adults can opt for death by injection if they find their condition intolerable and pain too great. Cases have included deaf twin brothers about to go blind.
But children must also be shown to be terminally ill. The child makes the decision, with parental consent.
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