GP who was adviser in Harold Shipman inquiry backs legalising assisted dying

Aneez Esmail, a GP who was involved in the Harold Shipman inquiry, has written to MPs urging them to vote for assisted dying. Photograph: Anthony Devlin

The medical adviser to the public inquiry into killings by the family doctor Harold Shipman has said he now believes that legalising assisted dying is necessary and would protect vulnerable patients.

Aneez Esmail, a GP, was the only medical adviser to the inquiry in 2000 into Shipman’s mass murder of patients – killings facilitated by Shipman’s power as a GP.