A 49-year-old man accused of giving a fatal dose of morphine to his dying mother will face a murder charge when he appears in court on Monday.
The man's name has been suppressed and Monday's hearing is to cover depositions before two justices of the peace in the
Taumarunui District Court.
His mother died at her Avonlea rest-home this year.
She, too, cannot be named, to avoid identifying her son.
Before her death she suffered a long-term illness, believed to be cancer.
Her son's arrest came within 48 hours of her death.
The outcome of the hearing will determine whether the Crown case should go to a High Court trial.
Witnesses will include a pathologist and a palliative care expert.
It is understood the defence submissions will include a challenge over whether it can be proved that the man's actions caused his mother's death.
She was believed to have been in the final stages of life, with only hours to live, and may have been in acute pain.
The case is likely to spark a new round of debate over whether euthanasia should be introduced in New Zealand, a debate last triggered by the case of Lesley Martin, the Taranaki woman who, in a book, admitted giving her terminally ill mother an overdose of morphine and suffocating her with a pillow in 1999.
She was found guilty in 2004 of attempted murder and jailed.
In July 2003, MPs narrowly voted out NZ First MP Peter Brown's Death With Dignity Bill, which prevented it going to a select committee for consideration.
The bill proposed a binding referendum on whether terminally ill people should be allowed to end their own lives.
