Dr David Moor, a British GP charged with murdering an elderly patient, was unanimously cleared by a jury this week at Newcastle Crown Court. The verdict was reached in an hour.
Dr Moor, 52, of Stamfordham, Northumberland, pleaded not guilty to the murder of retired ambulanceman George Liddell, 85, by injecting him with a lethal dose of diamorphine. Had he been convicted, he would have been sentenced to life imprisonment, which is the mandatory sentence for murder. The case reignited the debate over euthanasia and whether the mandatory life sentence, which is bound to deter juries from convicting a caring doctor, should remain.
Dr Moor, who has since retired from practice, was arrested and prosecuted after taking part in a debate in the media about voluntary euthanasia. He was quoted as saying he had helped a number of patients to have pain free deaths. The court was told that he visited Mr Liddell, who had had surgery for bowel cancer, at his daughter’s home and, after finding him in agony, injected him with an overdose of diamorphine.
The judge, Mr Justice Hooper, told the jury: “You have heard that this defendant is a man of excellent character, not just in the sense that he has no previous convictions but how witnesses have spoken of his many admirable qualities. You may consider it a great irony that a doctor who goes out of his way to care for George Liddell ends up facing the charge that he does. You may also consider it another great irony that the doctor who takes time on his day off to tend to a dying patient ends up on this charge.”
English law recognises a doctrine of “double effect,” under which doctors may lawfully give pain killing drugs with the intention of relieving suffering, even if the result is the patient’s death. But they commit murder if they give drugs with the intention of killing the patient.