Michael Irwin

Michael Henry Knox Irwin (born 5 June 1931) is a British doctor, formerly a GP and a Medical Director with the United Nations.

Irwin was trained at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, London (graduating in 1955), and at Columbia University, New York.

He was struck off by the UK General Medical Council in 2005 after openly admitting travelling to the Isle of Man in October 2003 to assist fellow campaigner Patrick Kneen to end his life.

He cited in particular "the Bank's bloated, overpaid bureaucracy, its wasteful practices, and its generally poor management."

From 1995 to 2003, Irwin was either the vice-chairman or the Chairman of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now, renamed Dignity in Dying).

In November 1999 Irwin stood as a "Campaign for Living Will Legislation" candidate in the Kensington and Chelsea parliamentary by-election occasioned by the death of MP Alan Clark.

In December 2009, Irwin established the Society for Old Age Rational Suicide (SOARS) which is promoting a discussion on the possibility of elderly, competent individuals, who are suffering from various medical problems, having a doctor legally end their lives, if this is their persistent request.

In 2009 he was arrested for partially financing the trip of Raymond Cutkelvin to Dignitas, but after a year on bail, he was not charged.