A RETIRED Dublin doctor gets at least 50 calls a year from people who want him to help them to die.
Dr Paddy Leahy, a general practitioner, who last year revealed that he had helped a friend to die, said. "I am not prepared to say what I did, but nothing falls on a deaf ear."
Following a controversy a year ago about his revelation concerning his friend, "a week hasn't gone by in the last 12 months when I haven't had a letter or phone call or request for me to come and help so and so. I have helped them.
Last year's revelation led to a complaint against him by Dr Bill Tormey, a consultant chemical pathologist at Blanchardstown and Beaumont Hospitals, Dublin.
Dr Leahy (79) said he had been told by the Medical Council that it was not proceeding with an investigation.
He said he was angry at the decision to drop the matter. He had asked to be called before the Fitness to Practise Committee, he said, and if he had been "I could give hundreds of cases of people whose lives were terminated by me."
Many of these cases happened in a Coventry hospital during the war and involved people injured by bombs.
I had hoped to go before them and tell them of what I had done time and time again. What do you do with a man or woman in extreme suffering with a couple of hours to live? What do you do? I can tell you a couple of hours is an eternity if you are in distress. I would have given them numberless examples.
Is it admissible to leave a man even an hour in unnecessary agony when he's determined to die?
"I am outraged how suffering and torment were tolerated for so long.
Death is nothing, but the dying can be terrible."
Many people suffering severe incurable illness want to die. "There are an awful lot of people out there pleading, and there are doctors who help them, but they are keeping their heads down."
The people who want to die are bin dire distress. They are tired and afraid of the next stage of a disease. The next stage may be incontinence, and for some people that is anathema."
In his own case, the quality of his life would be gone if he had to use a wheelchair. "I don't want to be treated for double incontinence," he added. "If it happens to me and I have control over the situation I will know what to do."
He was certain that people who were terminally ill and wanted to die would continue contacting him for help. "I bet you in the next two weeks I will be faced with another."