Michael Irwin, MPH, MD Biography
- Title:
- Former Medical Director at the United Nations and current Coordinator of My Death, My Decision (formerly SOARS)
- Position:
- Pro to the question "Should Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal?"
- Reasoning:
-
“The right to die should be a matter of personal choice.
We are able to choose all kinds of things in life from who we marry to what kind of work we do and I think when one comes to the end of one’s life, whether you have a terminal illness or whether you’re elderly, you should have a choice about what happens to you…
I’m pro life – I want to live as long as I possibly can, but l also believe the law should be changed to let anyone with some severe medical condition which is causing unbearable symptoms to have an assisted suicide. I wouldn’t want to be unnecessarily kept alive against my own will.”
Michael Irwin, “Euthanasia: The Right to Die Should Be a Matter of Personal Choice,” Mirror, Aug. 19, 2013
- Involvement and Affiliations:
-
- Founder and Coordinator, My Death, My Decision (formerly SOARS), 2009-present
- Director, Right-to-Die Europe, 2011-2013
- Coordinator, Secular Medical Forum, 2006-2008
- Former Chair, Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now Dignity in Dying)
- Treasurer, World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies, 2008-2012
- Recipient, Secularist of the Year Award, 2005
- President, World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies, 2002-2004
- Chairman, Voluntary Euthanasia Society, 2002-2004
- Vice Chairman, Voluntary Euthanasia Society, 2002-2004
- Vice President, World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies, 2000-2002
- Party Candidate, Kensington and Chelsea (Living Will Campaign), 1999
- Director, Doctors for Assisted Dying, 1998-2001
- Chairman, Voluntary Euthanasia Society, 1996-2000
- Chairman, UN Association, 1996-1998
- Vice Chairman, UN Association, 1995
- Education:
-
- MD, Unknown school
- MPH, Columbia University, 1960
- MB BS, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, 1955
- Other:
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- Health Consultant, Westside Action, 1993-1995
- Director, Westside Action, 1991-1993
- Advisor, ActionAid, 1990-1991
- Consultant, American Association of Blood Banks, 1984-1990
- Director, Health Services Department, World Bank, 1989-1990
- Medical Director, United Nations, UNICEF, and UNDP, 1982-1989
- Senior Advisor, UNICEF, 1980-1982
- UNICEF Representative, Bangladesh, 1977-1980
- Director of Personnel, United Nations Development Programme, 1973-1976
- Medical Director, United Nations, 1969-1973
- Medical Officer, United Nations, 1957-1969
- Doctor, Prince of Wales Hospital, 1955-1956
- Born June 5, 1961
- Struck off the medical register following a 2005 arrest for confessing to attempting to assist the suicide of a terminally ill friend in 2003.
- Quoted in: