Former GP Questioned By Police Over Dignitas Death

Former GP Michael Irwin questioned by police over Dignitas death, Jul. 31, 2009.

A former GP known as Doctor Death was questioned by police this morning after admitting that he helped a terminally ill man pay for assisted suicide.

Dr Michael Irwin, 78, dared the authorities to prosecute him for helping fund 58-year-old Raymond Cutkelvin’s death at the Swiss clinic Dignitas, promising to highlight the “hypocritical British system” surrounding euthanasia.

Dr Irwin was arrested and taken to Battersea police station in South London a day after Debbie Purdy won a historic victory at the House of Lords to force the Director of Public Prosecutions to clarify the law. Keir Starmer, QC, is expected to issue written guidance on the circumstances in which prosecution is appropriate within eight weeks.

Dr Irwin had expected to be taken to Shoreditch Station in North London but, after media gathered in Hackney for his arrival, he was diverted elsewhere.

Dr Irwin, a retired GP from Cranleigh, Surrey, was questioned after writing a cheque for £1,500 towards the cost of Mr Cutkelvin’s procedure at Dignitas. He was released on bail this afternoon.

Before arriving at the police station, he insisted he would welcome a criminal trial, and said: “I am daring them to prosecute me. It is a hypocritical British system that allows the rich to seek treatment but the poor to face prosecution.

“The two individuals, Raymond, who was dying and his partner, Alan, were not very well off financially and I was willing to pay one-third of the total cost involved in making that journey.

“I think it is the height of hypocrisy in this country where if you have the money, you are terminally ill and you want to go to Switzerland, you can do so.”

Mr Cutkelvin was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour of the pancreas in 2006 and died the following year at the clinic.

Dr Irwin was supported today by Mr Cutkelvin’s partner of 28 years, Alan Cutkelvin Rees, 57, who said: “I will do all I can to expose this absurd law. I have no trouble with the police, it’s the system which has stopped me from grieving.”

Dr Irwin was struck off the medical register in 2005 by the General Medical Council (GMC) after he travelled to the Isle of Man with the intention of giving his friend, Patrick Kneen, about 60 Temazepam sleeping pills to help him die.

Mr Kneen, who was in his late 70s and had prostate cancer, was too ill to take the class-C drug and died a few days later while in a coma.

Dr Irwin stood down as chairman of what was then the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, now renamed Dignity in Dying, after receiving a police caution over the incident.

As legal experts at the Crown Prosecution Service began drawing up new guidelines after yesterday’s decision by the law lords, Ms Purdy called for the legislation to be made “appropriate for the 21st century”.

The multiple sclerosis sufferer and right-to-die campaigner had sought assurances that her husband, Omar Puente, would not be prosecuted if he helped her travel abroad to end her life.

Yesterday, the five law lords unanimously ruled that the DPP must issue a “custom-built” policy stating the circumstances that would lead to a prosecution in such cases and those that would not.

Mr Starmer said that prosecutors would begin work immediately on an interim policy, which should be ready by September with a final version by spring next year.

Ms Purdy, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she would continue her campaign to force a change in the law: “The only way to determine what the policy should be is to discuss it so that we can make sure that all safeguards are considered and thought about and we get a policy which is appropriate for the 21st century.”

She rejected fears that the new guidance would lead to an increased number of people being pressured into ending their life.

“I don’t think there is going to be a rush to get Auntie May to the knacker’s yard because they want to inherit her house,” she said.

“The DPP has got the responsibility of making sure that financial gain is definitely not something which should be allowed for assistance.”

Police have also interviewed the children of the conductor Sir Edward Downes, who were present when he and his wife died at Dignitas earlier this month.

The 85-year-old composer had become virtually blind and suffered loss of hearing while Lady Downes, 74, a former ballet dancer and choreographer, was suffering from terminal cancer.

Officers questioned the couple’s son, Caractacus, 41, and daughter, Boudicca, 39, but a police file has not yet been passed to the CPS for a decision on whether a court case should be brought.

By Fran Yeoman, The Times, London