Md. Doctor's License Revoked For Assisting 6 Suicides
BALTIMORE (MD) ---He admits he's assisted hundreds of patients in taking their own lives. Now the Maryland State Board of Physicians has revoked the license of Dr. Lawrence Egbert.
Meghan McCorkell sat down to speak with Egbert and has his reaction.
The state board accuses Egbert of assisting in the deaths of six patients who they say were not terminally ill.
Looking back on the people he's helped take their own lives, Dr. Lawrence Egbert chokes up.
"I've had a number of times where I start crying," Dr. Egbert said.
Working with the "Final Exit Network" the anesthesiologist admits he's helped hundreds die. Now the Maryland State Board of Physicians has revoke his license for unprofessional conduct saying, "it is undisputed that Dr. Egbert participated in six suicides in the state of Maryland as either a senior exit guide or as the member's only exit guide."
Egbert vows to appeal.
"A person who is horribly suffering, has done everything they can possibly can do for it," Dr. Egbert said. "Who am I to tell them they don't have a right to die?
It's a conversation recently brought to the forefront by Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill woman who went public with her plans to die with dignity.
"I am choosing to end it a little sooner and in a lot less pain and suffering," Maynard said.
Her story sparked rallies across the country, including in Annapolis, to enact death with dignity laws.
"At some point people with terminal illness want control over what fate is bringing them and that's the end of their life," Gwen Fitzgerald with Compassion and Choices said.
It's now legal in five states for doctors to help terminally ill patients take their lives. But, the state board argues none of Egbert's six patients in Maryland were terminally ill. That's why they've taken his license away.
Egbert has not been criminally charged in Maryland.
The final exit network claims its the only U.S. organization that will help patients die who are not terminally ill. Egbert says he has recently stopped working with the group.
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