That’s the knee-jerk reaction to Dr Jack Kevorkian, the US "mercy killer" charged this week with murdering patients under his care, according to retired British neurosurgeon Ram Kalbag.

But Kalbag says most people haven’t had to cope with a brain-damaged patient who demands to know why you’ve saved her life when that life consists of nothing but pain and suffering.

Kalbag, 72, became an euthanasia supporter after spending time working in the rehab unit at Newcastle’s Regional Neurological Centre.

"As a neurosurgeon, I felt that I was only doing half the job. My patients’ relatives would sometimes ask me: why did you save them? I’d meet widows who weren’t widows."

But Kalbag has a different take on euthenasia from Kevorkian. He says Kevorkian hasn’t done the international euthanasia movement any good at all - he's a "mad man", a "rogue agent", someone simply after personal publicity.

Kalbag’s view is that euthanasia should happen only in the context of an established doctor-patient relationship. It’s about an individual’s right to make a conscious decision, when fit, when healthy, when in a right state of mind, to end his or her life if the worst were to happen.

On these grounds, Kalbag is against abortion: you can’t ask an unborn baby whether it wants to live or not.

Kalbag says that what’s happening in Britain is the gradual acceptance of the idea of "living wills", a statement made in advance of any illness or accident that states quite categorically what you would like done if you are no longer conscious, if you are no longer able to make the decision to take your own life.

In theory, this protects any doctor who withdraws or withholds treatment from a patient. And, again in theory, any doctor who failed to act under the terms of the will would be in breach of the implicit contract between a doctor and his patient and could be legally liable. It’s a theory that no British court's tested yet.