New Zealand will face increasing numbers of mercy killings as the population ages, euthanasia advocates predict.
The release yesterday of elderly Aucklander John Karnon - who faced a manslaughter charge for killing his sick, elderly wife - showed compassion, said Jack Jones, of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.
Karnon, aged 87,this month admitted killing 86-year-old Florence Karnon in a suicide pact that went wrong.
Justice Paterson, QC, was satisfied that Karnon had been motivated by consideration and compassion when he enacted what Karnon's lawyer called "a final act of love."
Mr Jones said more people in similar circumstances were considering euthanasia as sickness and old age took their toll.
Older people no longer died from conditions such as pneumonia. Instead, they lived long, often lonely lives, in extraordinary pain.
More families would be involved in helping them die because no one could stand by and watch such suffering, he said.
Politicians should move swiftly to legalise euthanasia.
The Minister of Justice, Tony Ryall, would not comment.
A Catholic spokeswoman, Lyndsay Freer, said the church was strongly opposed to euthanasia - but would not condemn yesterday's decision.
"We would feel that only God can really at the end of the day make that judgment on the action."
Past cases of assisted suicide include Christchurch man Warren Ruscoe, who helped his tetraplegic best friend die in 1991.
He was initially charged with murder but later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aiding a suicide.
Peter Novis was tried in 1988 for shooting his terminally ill father on the Coromandel Peninsula. He was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 months' supervision.
Two years later Roger Stead was accused of murdering his mother, who had pleaded with him to help her die.
He was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 31/2 years' jail.
