It's a myth that morphine can be used to hasten a person's death because its sedative effects wear off too quickly, a British doctor wrote in Saturday's issue of the British Medical Journal.

The drug is also well tolerated at a wide range of doses and a toxic amount would lead to agitation and make for an unpleasant death, said Claud Regnard, director of palliative care at St. Oswald's Hospice at Newcastle upon Tyne in England.

Regnard's letter refers to the case of Kelly Taylor, a terminally ill woman who went to court in Britain earlier this month asking to use morphine "to make her unconscious," which she thought would hasten her death.

In the Netherlands, where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal, doctors are aware of the drug's effects and as a result hardly ever use it to euthanize terminally ill patients, he pointed out.