The United Kingdom’s General Medical Council (GMC) has exonerated an experienced consultant neurologist and ordained Catholic priest after he was investigated for three years for giving a ‘pro-life’ medical opinion in an end-of-life court case.
The Rev. Dr. Patrick Pullicino, 74, faced an investigation by the GMC which could have resulted in him being barred from the profession.
In a career spanning 50 years, he had never faced a “fitness to practice” investigation until he was targeted by Celia Kitzinger, an assisted suicide campaigner, according to Christian Concern.
Represented by attorneys with the Christian Legal Centre, Dr. Pullicino is best known as one of the few doctors who first raised the alarm in 2012 over the abuses carried out under the Liverpool Care Pathway, a method of looking after terminally ill patients that was used in hospitals across the UK. This led to the end-of-life code being rescinded two years later.
Pullicino’s case highlights the growing pressure on medical professionals not to break ranks with colleagues who had made a controversial decision that would end a patient’s life. In sensitive end-of-life cases, dissenting medical experts risk severe criticism by courts and activists, leading to protracted and stressful investigations by professional regulators,
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