WELLINGTON: The cases of two men charged with helping terminally ill relatives to end their lives sparked a fresh debate about voluntary euthanasia in New Zealand.
Politician Maryan Street is pushing legislation that will allow a person to help someone end their life without facing criminal charges.
Parliament last debated the issue in 2003 after a woman was jailed for 15 months on a charge of attempted murder after her terminally ill mother died.
Despite an outpouring of public sympathy for nurse Lesley Martin, parliament rejected a Death with Dignity Bill by a 60-57 vote.
“The politicians have not had the guts to look at it again since then,” Sean Davison told the Voluntary Euthanasia Society after being released from five months of house arrest for helping his 85-year-old cancer-ridden mother to commit suicide in October 2006.
“I broke the law, but it’s a bad law and now is the time to change it,” said Davison, who gave her the lethal dose of morphine she had begged for after unsuccessfully trying to starve herself to death.
Davison, 50, heads the forensic DNA analysis laboratory at the University of the Western Cape.
Meanwhile, Evans Mott, 61, awaits trial in Auckland on a charge of aiding and abetting the December suicide of his wife, who suffered from multiple sclerosis.
Police allege Mott and his wife, 55, researched suicide methods and assembled a death kit months before she asked him to leave her alone in the house. He found her dead when he returned several hours later.
Surveys show up to 70 percent of people favour a change in the law.
The Rev John Murray, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church, is one outspoken advocate.
“Voluntary euthanasia is not a violent, lonely, act which most suicides are, but it is recognition of the right to die, where friends and family can share the event, share in the joy and sorrow of that,” he said.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has ruled out any amendment to the law before the next general election in 2014.- Sapa-DPA