UK Millionaire claims he killed is first wife "compassionately" and beat his second wife.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthansia Prevention Coalition

On Saturday I published excerpts from an article by Simon Caldwell accusing the Sunday Times of championing the euthanasia story of an abusive husband because it fit their pro-euthanasia stance.

An article by Gregory Kirby published by the Daily Mail on Sunday January 23 further uncovers the story of the millionaire ex-army medic, Douglas Laing. Laing confessed to killing his first wife in 1998, in what he referred to as an "assisted death" as part of a campaign to legalize euthanasia in the UK.

With a little digging researchers uncovered that in October 2017, Laing was accused by his second wife, Susan, of hitting her three times with a wooden mallet. Laing was convicted with a three year jail sentence for beating his wife.

Kirby explains that a murder investigation into the death of Laing's first wife has been launched. The story is significant since Laing released his "confession" as part of a campaign to challenge the laws prohibiting euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Douglas Laing

According to Kirby's article:

Laing said doctors familiar with his military nursing experience provided him with the lethal drugs to prevent his wife dying in a hospice.

He kept it secret until last year, when he began to follow the Sunday Times campaign Dying with Dignity, which backs efforts to legalise assisted dying.

Laing was being supported by Dignity in Dying, a separate campaign to change the law on assisted suicides, but the charity distanced itself from him after the latest revelations emerged.

Chief executive Sarah Wootton said: 'Dignity in Dying will not be commenting further while police investigations are ongoing.'

It is important to note that Dignity in Dying were supporting Laing and likely wrote his confession letter where he admitted to killing his first wife. Notice how they are now silent about their campaign with Laing.

In his contrived confession letter that was published by the Sunday Times in October 2021 Laing stated:

...'I'm in tears as I recall that conversation. 

'I have struggled with what I did and only recently spoken to close family about it. 

'I wanted to make my actions public knowledge in support of the move to legalise assisted dying.

'Taking the brave decision she did allowed my wife to say goodbye to our two sons while she was able to, and allowed us to have a final cuddle. Then she was gone. 

'I know the consequences and it doesn't bother me one jot.' 

To me, Douglas Laing feels eerily similar to the profile uncovered  byresearch done several years ago on murder-suicide by Donna Cohen, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a suicide researcher, proving that murder-suicide is rarely related to assisted suicide.

Cohen stated the following in a March 2009 Minnesota Tribune article:

When people read reports of a murder-suicide they will often ask the question, was this an Act of love, or desperation? Cohen who has researched this question tries to find answers. 

She stated in the article:

That notion is common in murder-suicides, said Cohen, who has testified before Congress, written extensively and helped train families and physicians. She is a professor of aging and mental health at the University of South Florida and heads its Violence and Injury Prevention Program. 

"If they were consulted, families usually would try to stop it,'' she said. "In fact, murder-suicide almost always is not an act of love. It's an act of desperation."

According to Cohen, the typical murder-suicide case involves a depressed controlling husband who kills his ill wife. 

"The wife does not want to die and is often shot in her sleep. If she was awake at the time, there are usually signs that she tried to defend herself."

The clear difference is that Laing killed his wife but did not kill himself but he appears to fit the profile of a controlling husband who killed his wife.