-
Evans Mott - Source: Fairfax -
Related
The lawyer representing a man who admits assisting the suicide of his wife has indicated he will seek discharge without conviction.
Evan Mott pleaded guilty to the charge in the Auckland District Court earlier this month.
Mott's lawyer, Ron Mansfield, said today "considerable evidence" would be given at the sentence hearing to support the bid for Mott to be discharged without conviction.
Sentencing is September 13.
Rosemary Mott, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, died at her home in Paritai Dr, Orakei, on December 28 last year. Her husband was accused of aiding and abetting her suicide by allegedly helping her to research euthanasia and acquiring equipment and material for her.
English-born Mott is a skilled craftsman and boatbuilder and has worked on superyachts around the world.
Multiple sclerosis is a disorder of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord which can cause fatigue, tickling, numbness or acute pain and often progresses to physical and cognitive disability.
Exit International, a pro-choice group, said Rosemary contacted the Auckland chapter about a year ago. It said she accessed a book, which is partially censored in New Zealand, about voluntary euthanasia.
In November last year, Auckland-born scientist Sean Davison was sentenced to five months home detention for assisting the suicide of his terminally ill mother in Dunedin.
His charges followed the publication of his book, Before We Say Goodbye, in which he admitted giving his mother morphine before she died.
Another pro-euthanasia campaigner, Lesley Martin, was convicted and sentenced in 2004 under similar circumstances following the publication of her book To Die Like a Dog.
Labour MP Maryann Street recently announced she was putting forward a private member's bill to legalise euthanasia.
Street said the bill, if it makes it through Parliament, will protect the person who wants euthanasia, their physician and their family.
She said doctors will be protected from being coerced into euthanising a patient if they are opposed on ethical or religious grounds.