He says his cancer-stricken mother had asked him to help her die
A forensic science professor who has campaigned for the public discussion of voluntary euthanasia went on trial in New Zealand on Tuesday charged with the attempted murder of his terminally ill 85-year-old mother, news reports said.
Sean Davison, 49, a New Zealander who lives and works in South Africa, pleaded not guilty to attempting to kill his mother, Patricia, who was a doctor and psychiatrist, by giving her morphine in Dunedin in 2006 on the night she died.
Davison, father of two small boys, heads the Forensic DNA Analysis Laboratory at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, which specialises in identifying DNA to resolve South African human rights cases.
He wrote a book called Before We Say Goodbye, published in 2009, in which he said his cancer-stricken mother had asked him to help her die when he returned to New Zealand to look after her as she went on a hunger-strike to try to end her life.
“She and I, both believing like many people that the law should permit voluntary euthanasia with safeguards, had spoken of it and been in agreement,” he wrote. “But it is something else when one is expected to put this belief into practice.”
He said that for legal reasons the publishers had omitted “a few things that were in my diary. I regret this but abide by their request”.
Davison’s brother Fergus Davison, a bio-medical scientist, is among 25 witnesses who will give evidence for the prosecution during the trial, which is expected to take three weeks, the Otago Daily Times reported on its website.
Euthanasia campaigner on trial
He says his cancer-stricken mother had asked him to help her die
A forensic science professor who has campaigned for the public discussion of voluntary euthanasia went on trial in New Zealand on Tuesday charged with the attempted murder of his terminally ill 85-year-old mother, news reports said.
Sean Davison, 49, a New Zealander who lives and works in South Africa, pleaded not guilty to attempting to kill his mother, Patricia, who was a doctor and psychiatrist, by giving her morphine in Dunedin in 2006 on the night she died.
Davison, father of two small boys, heads the Forensic DNA Analysis Laboratory at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, which specialises in identifying DNA to resolve South African human rights cases.
He wrote a book called Before We Say Goodbye, published in 2009, in which he said his cancer-stricken mother had asked him to help her die when he returned to New Zealand to look after her as she went on a hunger-strike to try to end her life.
“She and I, both believing like many people that the law should permit voluntary euthanasia with safeguards, had spoken of it and been in agreement,” he wrote. “But it is something else when one is expected to put this belief into practice.”
He said that for legal reasons the publishers had omitted “a few things that were in my diary. I regret this but abide by their request”.
Davison’s brother Fergus Davison, a bio-medical scientist, is among 25 witnesses who will give evidence for the prosecution during the trial, which is expected to take three weeks, the Otago Daily Times reported on its website.
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