A consultant risks being struck off the General Medical Council's list over charges that she brought to an end the life of a comatose patient "earlier than would have occurred naturally".

After telling Ann David, an anaesthetist, that no action would be taken, the GMC brought professional misconduct charges, telling her "there was a considerable public interest in testing allegations concerning the ethical question of the withdrawal of treatment". She failed to overturn the decision in the high court.

Dr David has been suspended from the intensive care unit of Basildon hospital in Essex since 2000, when colleagues raised concerns. Basildon and Thurrock Hospitals NHS trust called in the Royal College of Anaesthetists, who highlighted 45 cases, seven investigated as samples. Police also investigated, but in 2002 the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute. The 45 cases went to the GMC, which looked into the seven but decided against charges.

It made a U-turn on seeing an expert's report by solicitors bringing a claim for Edna Symons, for her husband, Robert. Arriving in a coma on January 22 1999, he died on February 16 when taken off a ventilator and given sedative which depresses breathing. His case was not one of the seven. The expert said: "There is no doubt that the combination of sedation and the removal of airway shortened his life."

But Dr David is backed by another expert, who said death had been inevitable at the time of the decision to withdraw treatment, and the dosage was "modest" and within the therapeutic range.