Claiming to have killed as many as 300 patients seems an unlikely way for a doctor to win public support. But the acquittal last week of the first doctor in Britain to have faced murder charges for the mercy killing of an invalid has ignited a national debate on euthanasia.
Dr David Moor had served as a popular general practitioner in the northeast of England for 30 years, establishing a reputation for being prepared to visit the sick on his days off. Hard-working and liked by his patients, his practice in Newcastle appeared to be a model of its kind.
A high-profile figure, he wrote a regular column for his local newspaper and hosted a phone-in show on regional radio. But he was arrested after a press interview in which he gave his support to another doctor's campaign for euthanasia and claimed to have helped many of his patients to pain-free deaths. Dr Moor allegedly told the press he had helped an average of 10 patients a year to die throughout his career.
He had spoken in support of Dr Michael Irwin, chairman of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, who claimed he had helped a number of terminally-ill patients to die.
Dr Irwin had said he prescribed large doses of sedatives and then placed a bag with an adhesive neck seal over the patient's head.
Police investigated the fate of one of Dr Moor's former patients who had died aged 85 after suffering from bowel cancer and alleged the doctor had given him a lethal dose of the pain killer diamorphine with the intention of shortening his life.