A leading doctor has issued a warning that the response to the coronavirus in the UK should not lead to the acceptance of eugenics.

Writing in the Huffington Post, the CEO of Care not Killing, Dr Gordan MacDonald said that while very difficult decisions have to be taken about who to treat in a context of grossly overstretched healthcare resources, we must be aware of the danger of changing medicine in a way which would be detrimental to the most vulnerable in society.

“In responding to the Covid-19 virus, we must ensure no back door is left open to the dangerous philosophy of eugenics”.

He cited former BBC Today presenter John Humphrys, who wrote in the Daily Mail: “I know I’m among the vulnerable group for coronavirus, but I just don’t believe all lives are equal.”

Similarly, Max Hastings, speaking on BBC World at One, stated that the elderly are “becoming a dead weight on the NHS”.

While such examples do not constitute euthanasia or assisting suicide because doctors are not actively hastening the end of patients’ lives, he said, “there is a danger that the same eugenicist thinking can feature”.