Trial fuels debate on euthanasia

FAIRFAX NZ

PLEADED GUILTY: Sean Davison.

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The Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand hopes a Dunedin case will ignite further public debate on euthanasia.

Microbiologist Sean Davison, who is based in Cape Town, faced a charge of attempting to murder, in 2006, his terminally ill mother Pat Davison, 85, in Dunedin.

His High Court trial ended this week in Dunedin with the Crown withdrawing the attempted murder charge and Davison pleading guilty to a charge of procuring and inciting his mother's death.

Euthanasia supporters wearing T-shirts saying, "Every Mum needs a Sean", appeared outside the court with him.

The Crown alleged he gave his cancer-ridden mother, a medical doctor who wanted to die at home, a drink containing crushed morphine tablets before she died. She was on her 33rd day of a hunger strike.

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society says it will continue to support Davison and believes the case should bring the "whole issue of end-of-life choice into the public arena".

"The medical profession are discussing advanced care planning, a process where they talk to the patient and their relatives about what is in the near future, and how they wish to cope with it," the society says on its website.

"But nowhere in the draft material produced for this project does there seem to be a mention of the advance directive which gives the patient the legal right to refuse all treatment.

"What is wanted now is a clear debate, a bill to Parliament leading to a select committee and finally a vote in Parliament on how this final step, the choice of the patient, can be medically assisted."

Assisting someone to die is illegal in New Zealand, although it often occurs informally.

The Death with Dignity Bill 2003 was defeated in a close vote in the same year it was introduced into Parliament.

The Davison case may turn out to be a benchmark case.

Pat Davison's mind remained sharp up to her death and she had conveyed wishes orally and in writing.

She began a starvation diet in the hope she would die quickly, but despite distressing physical symptoms was still alive after 32 days.

Last year the Medical Association backed Margaret Page's right to starve herself to death. Page, who had three psychiatric assessments, was disabled after a cerebral haemorrhage and totally dependent on care. She died after 16 days on her hunger strike.

Davison, who is a member of the voluntary euthanasia society, Dignity, will be sentenced on November 24.

- © Fairfax NZ News