I persuaded doctor to end my dying father's life at 56, admits Michael Caine



Sir Michael Caine has revealed that he asked a doctor to help his gravely ill father die.

The doctor gave his father an overdose to end his suffering when he was dying in hospital from liver cancer – a secret Caine never revealed to his mother.

The star - who has won two Oscars - has now expressed his support for mercy killings.

Sir Michael’s father Maurice Micklewhite, who shared his son’s name, was a Billingsgate fish market porter who died aged 56 in 1955.

Revelation: Sir Michael Caine, who is currently promoting his autobiography The Elephant to Hollywood, revealed the secret behind his father's death

In a radio interview to be broadcast tomorrow, the actor, 77, said he asked a doctor to help end his father’s suffering.

And although the doctor told him he could not hasten his death, Sir Michael said he honoured his request and discreetly gave his father an overdose.

Sir Michael said: ‘My father had cancer of the liver and I was in such anguish over the pain he was in, that I said to this doctor, I said: "Isn’t there anything else you could [do], just give him an overdose and end this” , because I wanted him to go and he said: "Oh no, no, no, we couldn’t do that."

‘Then, as I was leaving, he said: "Come back at midnight." I came back at midnight and my father died at five past twelve. So he’d done it...’



The veteran actor said Micklewhite had been given just three to four days to live when he asked the doctor to perform a mercy killing.



However, he kept the request secret from his mother Ellen, a cook and a cleaner, who died in 1989.

When asked if he agreed with voluntary euthanasia, Caine continued: ‘Oh I think so, yeah.

‘I think if you’re in a state to where life is no longer bearable, if you want to go. I’m not saying that anyone else should make the decision, but I made the request, but my father was semi-conscious.’

Sir Michael made the confession during an interview with presenter Nick Ferrari which will be broadcast tomorrow evening on Classic FM.

Assisted suicide is a crime under the 1961 Suicide Act, and can result in a prison sentence of 14 years.

However the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer has ruled a person is unlikely to be prosecuted if they help to end of the life of a loved one for compassionate, unselfish and non-malicious reasons.

A spokeswoman for Dignity in Dying, a charity campaigning for the legalisation of assisted suicide and assisted dying, yesterday welcomed Sir Michael’s confession and called for new measures to allow doctors to help terminally patients die, if it is their request.

She said: ‘It is unimaginably difficult to watch a loved one suffer against their wishes at the end of their life.



Star in the making: A young Michael Caine with his parents Ellen and Maurice Micklewhite

‘There is an ethical fudge at the moment that prevents doctors from directly helping patients to die at the patients request, but does allow them to give enough medication to shorten a patient’s life, as long as their intention is to relieve pain, not end life.

‘This neither protects people properly from potential abuse nor offers a clear choice for terminally ill adults who wish to control their death.

‘We need up-front safeguards which allow people who are terminally ill and mentally competent to be allowed to ask for help to die in the final days or weeks of their lives, whilst also better protecting vulnerable people. The current situation places a terrible emotional burden on both patients, their families and their doctors.’

But Alistair Thompson, spokesman for the Care Not Killing campaign group, said: ‘There is always an alternative to euthanasia.

‘We are incredibly lucky to have access to amazing palliative care in this country, which is second to none in the world.

‘We have great doctors, and fantastic hospices in this country, and systems in place to ensure no patient will suffer pain or discomfort if they are terminally ill.

‘That has been developed over a number of years, and I find that the experts who we work with regularly do not believe there is any necessity to legalise euthanasia.

‘Of course I wasn’t present at the death of Sir Michael Caine’s father, so it would be wrong to comment on a specific incident, but one of the problems that has arisen in the past is that people did not get access to that full spectrum of palliative care.

‘The care and quality of drugs are outstanding, and medical treatments have advanced greatly over the last twenty years, so we need to make sure that everyone who is in need of care is quickly attended to by specialists.

‘There is absolutely no need to consider more drastic action, which is both cruel and unnecessary.’ Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland where organisations such as Dignitas help people to end their lives.