Euthanasia Advocate Faces Trial

New Zealand's most prominent euthanasia advocate is to face court next week charged with the attempted murder of her terminally ill mother in 1999.

Lesley Martin nursed her mother, Joy, through five months of cancer before giving her an overdose of morphine and smothering her with a pillow, in accordance with her mother's desire to die painlessly. Her mother died the next day.

A postmortem examination said cause of death was respiratory arrest, possibly due to morphine poisoning or pneumonia.

Ms Martin's book about the experience, To Die Like a Dog, caused police to reopen a homicide inquiry which had been dropped after 10 months for lack of evidence, and to charge her with two counts of attempted murder.

Ms Martin, 40, could face 14 years in prison if found guilty, although the sentence is likely to be closer to two years and convertible to a period of home detention.

Since 1999 three people in New Zealand have been sentenced to jail terms of up to three years for voluntary euthanasia of close relatives.

Ms Martin's trial has caused widespread debate, following the narrow failure of a parliamentary bill legalising euthanasia last year. The bill, which would have legalised only doctor-assisted euthanasia, was defeated by 60 votes to 58 despite support of the prime minister, Helen Clark. It was tabled by Peter Brown, deputy leader of the New Zealand First party, on the same day Ms Martin was charged by police.

The proposed bill would only allow the law to be changed after a referendum.