A doctor who was spared criminal charges over Keir Starmer’s assisted dying when he was director of public prosecutions has said he is confident the Prime Minister wants a change to ‘ridiculous’ laws on the issue.
Dr. Michael Irwin was arrested in 2009 after reports that he traveled with a terminally ill man to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and gave him £1,500 towards the costs of ending his life.
After Irwin had been on bail for almost a year, Starmer announced that while there was sufficient evidence to prosecute him, it would not be in the public interest.
Irwin told the Guardian that his first thought when Starmer entered Downing Street was that an assisted dying law could finally be passed. The 93-year-old said he was now hopeful “that the law will change in my lifetime so I don’t have to go to Switzerland myself” and that if his health deteriorated he wanted the option to die at home “in my own bed ”.
Irwin’s comments come after three former heads of the Crown Prosecution Service expressed support for a bill to legalize assisted death for terminally ill adults. Max Hill, Alison Saunders and Ken Macdonald all told the Sunday Times that they would support a change in the law.
A bill on the issue was launched last week by Kim Leadbeater, the Labor MP for Spen Valley. Under the title ‘End-of-life choice for terminally ill adults’, a debate and vote on this will take place on November 29. The government remains neutral on the issue and Labor MPs will have a free vote.
Irwin traveled to Dignitas in 2007 with Raymond Cutkelvin, a Londoner who had an inoperable tumor of the pancreas and died in the Swiss clinic at the age of 58. Irwin was arrested two years later.
Announcement that the case was 2010 is deletedStarmer said in his role as DPP that Irwin was “motivated by a strong belief that the law on assisted suicide is wrong” and that he “did not act for personal gain; did not put pressure on Mr Cutkelvin; and did not actively participate in the suicide itself.”
Irwin traveled to Dignitas five times to help people end their lives. Only once did this lead to arrest, he said, “and then the lovely Keir Starmer, who is now Prime Minister, decided that no further action should be taken because no jury would convict me”.
The retired GP had written to Starmer immediately after his arrest, confessing what he had done and inviting him to press charges for assisting suicide, a crime that could carry up to 14 years in prison. But Starmer declined to prosecute, noting that Irwin was “at least partly motivated by personal sympathy”.
Irwin had previously been struck off the medical register in 2005 and given a warning for possessing a lethal dose of barbiturates which he intended to give to a doctor friend.
Although Irwin did not want to make public a private conversation with Starmer at the time his criminal case was dismissed, he said: ‘I think he’s a very good person. A good person as Prime Minister and a good person as an individual. And I’m sure he wants to see the law change too.”
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Speaking about Starmer’s decision not to press charges, Irwin said: “I thought he was a very sensible person who knew what the majority of people in this country would want for themselves, and it was a step in the right direction.’
Commenting on how the law prevents people from helping those suffering from terminal conditions to end their lives, Irwin said: “The current situation is cruel because people in that situation want as much help as possible and it is essentially cruel to to deny them that help. ”
He added: “The current law is ridiculous. We know that the majority of people want to change the law. I think it would be very reassuring for people to know that it is possible here and that you don’t have to go to Switzerland.’
Irwin said he was still enjoying his life, but wanted the option to end it if he was suffering from a terminal condition. “I am now 93 years old. I have some difficulty walking after an accident I had a few years ago, but I don’t feel my age. I wake up in the morning and think, my God, I’m so old and I don’t feel it. And I’m quite active. I’ll eat out, go to London, but it would be nice to have that option when the time comes.
The Archbishop of Canterbury warned last week that legalizing assisted suicide could result in “intense and inescapable” pressure on people to end their lives prematurely. Justin Welby wrote in the Daily Post that “the right to end your life could all too easily – and accidentally – turn into a duty to do so.”