GP induced `easy death' of patients
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Your support makes all the difference.A country doctor has admitted inducing the "easy death" of two of his patients. Dr Nick Maurice, 54, whose family has treated people for generations in the market town of Marlborough, Wiltshire, said that doctors practise euthanasia all the time and should be proud of it.
His comments drew support from the writer and broadcaster Sir Ludovic Kennedy, the president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, who lives at nearby Avebury. He praised the doctor's actions as "admirable".
Wiltshire police said they are aware of the doctor's admissions - given in a newsletter to his patients - and were "looking at the circumstances".
Dr Maurice, who works in the town's only GP practice - the Marlborough Surgery with about 12,000 patients - denies any suggestion that he is simply "killing" his patients.
He declares in his newsletter: "We doctors are practising euthanasia all the time and should be proud of it. In the past three months I have induced a quiet and easy death for two of my patients for which the relatives were grateful. That is not to say I have killed two patients. It is simply to say that I have given sufficient quantities of morphine to ensure that the physical and mental suffering of the patient, and the relative also, has been kept to a minimum."
The doctor does not name the patients. He defines euthanasia as allowing people to die "peacefully and quietly".
He says: "I simply offer the best possible comfort and care using drugs available to me."
His surgery patients are invited to fill in Advance Directives - sometimes called "living wills" - stating how they wished to be treated in the event of a terminal illness.
It was interest in these Advance Directives from patients which brought about the doctor's article, according to practice manager Michael Reynolds.
He said: "Dr Maurice wrote the article because of interest being shown by his patients in these Advance Directives. We decided it would be best to clarify what the practice does in such circumstances."
Dr Maurice is against legalisation of the induction of a patient's death. He maintains: "I have grave concern how an induced death would be handled. I can envisage a patient being surrounded by lawyers, doctors and even policemen - and that is the last scenario a dying person needs."
Sir Ludovic gives his support for the doctor in a letter to the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. He praises the doctor's actions as "admirable for the compassion shown in bringing his patients' suffering to an end".
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