Dr Jereth Kok called abortion doctors ‘ contract killers ’.

Heather Saxena HIS social media posts that ended

with his suspension under emergency

powers five years ago covered a variety of topics — from doctors providing abortion to those involved in transgender care to his views on the wrongs of homosexuality .

But it was only last week that Dr

Dr Jereth Kok .

Paul Smith DOCTORS obviously lack imagination .

While the medical profession has been anguished at the prospect of their mass redundancy as a result of diagnostic machine learning , some have realised that artificial intelligence ( AI ) could do far more .

Not just doctoring or virtual counselling or radiology — it could also be used in determining the manner of someone ’ s death .

Jereth Kok was finally brought before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to formally defend accusations that his views and the manner

‘ It goes to the democratic right of any doctor .’

in which he expressed them meant he was unfit to remain a doctor .

The Medical Board of Australia ’ s barrister , Benjamin Jellis , told the hearing that the case against the Melbourne GP was based on 85 social media posts written between 2010 and 2021 .

Some of them were public posts on public websites , and some were only visible to people in his social media network , such as friends of friends .

In them , Dr Kok had said doctors who performed abortions were “ serial contract killers ” and “ butchers ” and had at one point asked : “ What ’ s wrong with capital punishment for serial contract killers ?”

He also dubbed doctors who performed gender reassignment surgery “ crooks engaged in mutilation ”.

Dr Kok ’ s defence before the tribunal was that his views were rooted in his evangelical Protestant Christian beliefs .

The tribunal was told that Dr Kok

lawyer , Stephen Moloney , said the references to “ murder ”, “ slaughter ”, “ industrial-scale massacre ”, “ butcher ” and “ mutilate ” were inappropriate .

But it was about free speech , he claimed .

“ This is probably one of the most important cases that ’ s ever been put in this tribunal in the last 30 years .

“ It goes to the democratic right of any doctor in this state to speak about matters of conscience … This is not a case about whether Dr Kok has prac-

“ This case is about whether what Dr Kok said in the public square can be sanctioned by the regulator .”

Dr Kok took to the stand on the third day of the hearings . Over five hours , he was taken through the social media posts that had alarmed the board .

One post had declared that the world was “ overrun by black people ” and “ the solution is clear : we must take family planning to poor countries and exterminate them before it is too late !”. This was not racist , he claimed ; it

way the West pushed family planning in developing countries .

He also denied that his comments on homosexuality , gender dysphoria and abortion had the potential to undermine public confidence in the medical profession and prevent patients seeking medical care — the board ’ s main charge .

“ It might undermine their willingness to see me , but I ’ m not sure it would undermine their willingness to see other doctors ,” he said , claiming

‘ They never discussed what she would want .’

The headline used in a JAMA Internal Medicine article published in July explains the authors ’ thought experiment : Can artificial intelligence speak for incapacitated patients at the end of life ?

What that headline lacks is a reference to the possible dystopian nightmare that could result if the answer proves to be yes .

Dr Teva Brender and colleagues start their article as follows : “ Imagine meeting with the daughter of a critically ill patient .

“ The patient ( her mother ) had a cardiac arrest , is in multiorgan failure and cannot communicate .

“ The daughter is uncomfortable making decisions because they are estranged and never discussed what her mother would want in this type of situation .”

In the absence of an advance care directive , that sounds tough — so PAGE 3

regretted some of the phrasing . His

tised medicine safely or effectively .

was heavily ironic — a criticism of the

he would refer any woman

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