Aussie euthanasia supporters plan to help Martin with legal fees

11.45am

Australian voluntary euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke says plans are in train across the Tasman for a fundraising campaign to help to pay the legal fees of Wanganui woman Lesley Martin.

Martin has been charged with attempting to murder her mother, Joy, who had cancer, in May 1999.

She faces a depositions hearing in Wanganui District Court beginning next Wednesday.

Dr Nitschke, who today starts a nine-day New Zealand programme of workshops and meetings, met Martin in Auckland last night, hours after he arrive from Melbourne.

He said Exit Australia, that country's largest voluntary euthanasia organisation with 3000 members, wanted to assist with Martin's legal bills.

"We are interested in making some sort of financial contribution because of the significance of her case for our country," he said.

"At the same time, I want to be able, with the trip through New Zealand, to galvanise some sort of fundraising for her here too."

Dr Nitschke's second New Zealand tour will also take him to Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

Apart from the Martin case, his visit coincides with debate in Parliament, also next Wednesday, on New Zealand First MP Peter Brown's Death Before Dignity Bill.

Dr Nitschke said he had had a wide-ranging discussion over several hours with Martin, who was expected to speak at his first public meeting in the inner Auckland suburb of Parnell tonight.

They talked about developments in Australia and in New Zealand, and also about her own situation.

Dr Nitschke confirmed he would attend the depositions hearing, at which a decision will be made on whether Martin has a case to answer.

"She told me how she felt the issue was going to unfold and what her lawyers had told her were the likely outcomes," he said.

"She is bearing up pretty well. Within New Zealand she has had a tremendous amount of support.

"But I don't want to be glib about it. The hard reality of what these events can be like might yet dawn.

"I've seen in Australia the toll that can be taken when things get protracted, but at this stage she is remarkably positive."

Martin is due to go to Sydney next month for an Exit Australia-organised conference entitled Killing Me Softly: Love, Death and Dying in Australia.

While it was an interesting time to be in New Zealand, Dr Nitschke said it was hard to assess whether a law change was in the offing.

However, the mere fact that a bill was going to be debated was significant.

"The fact that you have the prime minister and other senior political figures making comments means the climate is right to move the issue along, but you will also see a massing of opposition forces," he said.

"I suspect it might be drawing a long bow to say it will lead to a law change, but it might -- I just don't know.

"If it does, it will have significant importance for Australia, so we will watching very closely."

Last month, a spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark said she supported giving terminally-ill people the right to choose to die with dignity.

Meanwhile, Dr Nitschke said he would be able to demonstrate his controversial carbon monoxide-generating machine during his workshops, which are each limited to about a dozen people.

Australian customs regulations were amended last year to prohibit exportation of devices to be used to commit suicide or to assist in suicide.

In January, Dr Nitschke had the prototype machine and drawstring plastic suicide bags confiscated when he left Australia for the United States.

On his departure from Melbourne yesterday, customs officers went though his bags, computer files and speech notes.

However, he said information about the machine was e-mailed in advance to New Zealand.

Some component parts were sent earlier, others were bought here.

Dr Nitschke also said he had been able to bring his suicide bags in his luggage.

"I now use those bags for all sorts of things, like putting washing in."

- NZPA