Lesley Martin with her mother.
A High Court judge today upheld an appeal from the Nursing Council to have Lesley Martin struck off the nursing register.
Ms Martin was convicted in 2004 of attempting to murder her terminally ill mother with an overdose of morphine.
In June last year, the council asked the
Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal to deregister Ms Martin as a result of her conviction.
The tribunal stopped short of striking her off, but imposed strict tests on her competency to be passed before she could return to nursing.
In a decision released today Justice Warwick Gendall overturned the tribunal's action and revoked Ms Martin's nursing registration completely.
However, this gave her the option of applying for a new registration in future, with no conditions.
Justice Gendall said the tribunal was clearly wrong in imposing conditions on Ms Martin, rather than striking her off.
The issue was not whether Ms Martin was a competent nurse, so it was inappropriate to impose a competency test, the judge said.
The issue was that she had made a premeditated decision to euthanase her mother, and had said afterwards she would do the same thing again.
Ms Martin told NZPA she was not a threat to society, and wouldn't have attempted to euthanase someone other than her mother.
"I was clearly nursing my mother as her daughter. I'd left nursing in 1997 and this was two years later that I was caring for my mum."
Ms Martin said she couldn't appeal the decision because there had been no error of law in the judge's decision.
"What we're seeing here is a very legalistic approach to the human condition (and) there's really not a lot I can do about that."
She had walked away from nursing a long time ago and was now studying psychology at university, so it was unlikely she would apply for a new registration in the future, Ms Martin said.
Nursing Council CEO Marion Clark said the council was happy with the verdict.
"Obviously we were concerned at the decision that Ms Martin could continue to practice. We think most of the nursing profession will be very pleased with the decision."
- NZPA
