Euthanasia campaigner faces trial in mother's death

Voluntary euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin lived for a time with the belief that she had killed her mother by smothering her, a depositions hearing in Wanganui District Court heard yesterday.

She placed a pillow over her terminally ill 69-year-old mother Joy Martin and held on tightly until she stopped breathing.

But her mother survived the suffocation attempt and later Martin injected her mother with an overdose of morphine.

Martin, 40, was yesterday committed for trial for attempting to murder her mother who died the day after the morphine injection in May 1999.

The court was told an autopsy revealed that Joy Martin died of respiratory arrest caused by either morphine administration or broncho-pneumonia. There was no evidence of suffocation.

Martin's lawyer, Wellington QC Donald Stevens, admitted that a case existed against his client at the conclusion of the two-day depositions hearing. He said Martin would plead not guilty.

Martin was remanded to November 18 for a High Court callover and her trial is not expected to be held until next year. She was granted bail on conditions that she surrendered her passport, lived in New Plymouth and did not talk publicly about the case.

Detective Sergeant Ross Grantham said Martin was arrested and charged after she published a book To Die Like A Dog in which she wrote of trying to end her mother's suffering. He said Martin told him that though she had taken some literary licence, the book was substantially true, including significant passages which pointed to her guilt.

She also told him of the pillow smothering incident in which she thought she had killed her mother, he said.

She held that belief until the autopsy findings revealed the cause of Joy Martin's death.

Earlier Martin's brother Michael spoke of the strong bond that developed between Martin and her mother leading up to the mother's death.

"You can't describe how close they were after what they had been through together, ugly things," Mr Martin said.

He told the court that his sister looked after her mother after Joy Martin was diagnosed as terminally ill.

Joy Martin had elected not to undergo chemotherapy or further surgery and wanted to spend her last days at home.

He said his sister grew very tired, approaching exhaustion.

Martin had, during one low moment, made a comment about ending her mother's life.

"She said, 'Mike, if there was a switch I could throw I'd do it right now'."

He and she discussed euthanasia in general terms only and did not talk about ending their mother's life at any stage, Mr Martin said.

The second day of the trial began with Dr Stevens cross-questioning Wanganui Hospice nurse Wiki Alward during which he challenged her actions the day before Joy Martin died.

Dr Stevens asked why Mrs Alward gave Joy Martin 30mg of morphine after learning that Lesley Martin had administered 60mg the night before, a dosage Mrs Alward described as an overdose.

"You gave it to a patient who was bombed out and had just been given an overdose?" Dr Stevens said.

Mrs Alward said it was appropriate to give Joy Martin the additional 30mg and that it was scheduled to be administered by an electronic syringe driver device over a 24-hour period.

She also did not think she needed to consult Joy Martin's general practitioner, Dr Charles Chilcott, before loading the syringe into the machine even though Lesley Martin had told her that she had given her mother the 60mg of morphine in an attempt to end her life and not because as she had earlier claimed that her mother was in increased pain.

"My opinion was that she required the 30 milligrams and it was an appropriate dose to give her," she said.

- NZPA