'Mercy' daughter goes to jail

2004-04-30 11:55

Wellington - A New Zealand euthanasia campaigner found guilty of attempting to murder her cancer-ridden mother was sent to prison for 15 months on Friday.

The lawyer for Lesley Martin, 40, who was charged after writing a book about the death of her mother called To Die Like a Dog, earlier told the judge a prison sentence would be "an offence against humanity".

Donald Stevens said: "To send her to jail for an act of mercy would offend against every worthwhile human sensibility and would not be the act of a civilised society," Radio New Zealand reported from the Wanganui High Court.

But in jailing Martin, Judge John Wild said while her love and compassion for her mother put her "squarely at the attempted mercy killing end of the spectrum", she showed a lack of remorse and arrogance and seemed to believe she was above the law.

At her trial last month, Martin, a nurse, was found guilty of attempting to murder her 69-year-old terminally ill mother with a morphine overdose while she was caring for her. She was acquitted of a second charge of attempted murder by suffocating her with a pillow.

Not alive and not dead

Martin was charged three years after her mother died in May 1999 when police reopened an investigation following publication of her book in which she quoted her mother saying: "Don't let me lie there, not alive and not dead... please help me... be quick... and don't get caught."

In the book, Martin advocated a law change to allow voluntary euthanasia and campaigned for it at meetings throughout the country.

She also founded Exit New Zealand, an organisation based on the one created in Australia by pro-euthanasia campaigner Dr Phillip Nitschke.

The judge said Martin could apply to serve her sentence at home, but her lawyer said she had rejected that.

"I refuse to have my home be my prison," she told the New Zealand Herald.

Martin's lawyer, who said there was substantial public sympathy for her, said he would appeal against the sentence.

Meanwhile, a New Zealand politician who narrowly failed last year to get Parliament to pass a law allowing mercy killings has said he will try again.

Peter Brown, an opposition legislator whose Death With Dignity private members bill was defeated by 60 votes to 57, said he would draft a new version. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA