Doctor Butler

Doctor Butler was Liz McDonald's physician when she was pregnant with Katie in 1991. Liz was 33 when she got pregnant and therefore eligible to take part in the surgery's research project monitoring the pregnancies of women over 32. After having tests done, Liz was called in for an appointment with Dr. Butler to give her permission to use her results in the study. Liz took the opportunity to confide in Dr. Butler that she wasn't as keen on having another baby as Jim and that they'd talked about not having it, speaking strictly in the past tense.

The next day, Jim went to see Dr. Butler himself to confirm Liz's story about the research project; he was worried that she was hiding a problem with the pregnancy from him. Dr. Butler assured Jim that Liz was healthy and the only question was how they would cope with another baby after so long. Jim was aggrieved to learn that Liz had raised the matter of a possible termination with Dr. Butler and wrongly assumed that she was still considering it.