Euthanasia advocate joins Lesley Martin in struggle

Euthanasia supporter Elizabeth Phillips is bringing the Dignity NZ roadshow to Tauranga. Picture / BoP Times

Elizabeth Phillips looked at her much-loved, 31-year-old mentally retarded daughter - and decided to kill her.

She couldn't bear watching daughter Catherine suffer any longer from kidney failure and leukaemia and she vowed to do something herself to stop her daughter's suffering.

The resident of Te Puna, near Tauranga, told doctors she was ready to act if they tried to keep her daughter alive.

"I said I would turn off the life support machines," she said.

"The doctors said Cathy would die within three months and I asked should she have to be in pain all that time," Mrs Phillips recalled.

"The doctors told me not to worry." Cathy died in hospital soon afterwards in 1989.

Since then, Mrs Phillips, now 73, has become an advocate of euthanasia and has already made her own end-of-life plans, intending to take a self-administered cocktail of drugs when the time is right.

She has teamed up with voluntary euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin to bring the Dignity NZ roadshow to Tauranga tomorrow.

Mrs Phillips is hosting Ms Martin at her home in Te Puna and although the two women have yet to meet, they both feel they know each other after months of letter writing as Ms Martin served her recent prison sentence.

"Death comes to everyone and no one wants to suffer," Mrs Phillips said.

She said she had recently watched two friends battle motor neuron disease and both had since died.

"I saw one of them from the initial stages until her husband stopped me from seeing her because she was so bad - she had wasted away and was in dreadful pain.

"It's disgraceful the way human beings have to suffer at the end of their life.

"Why can't they have an injection and die like a dog does," she said, in reference to Ms Martin's book To Die Like A Dog.

"I'm a Christian, and I believe God will give us the means and the know-how when it's time to do so.

"I've told my family there is no way I want to suffer any terminal illness - I want to die with dignity.

"They know it's my will, they've accepted it, but they are not very happy."

Mrs Phillips has a daughter Jane, 49, and a son Paul, 45, as well as two grandchildren.

"I've also told all my friends my feelings, so they all know.

"I've asked for a 'do not resuscitate' note on my file at Tauranga Hospital.

"I'd like a cocktail of drugs to kill me, so the onus is not on anyone else."

A congestive heart failure episode last year refocused Mrs Phillips' thinking on the issue.

"If I'm still like this, fine.

"It scared me because I was so healthy, and had a healthy life."

After 20 years of voluntary work, the former legal secretary stresses that she is not anti-life.

"I do love life. I love people and trees.

"It's just the thought of deteriorating."

Ms Martin's 12-city tour started in New Plymouth on Saturday and aimed to attract small groups for workshop-style sessions covering issues related to end-of-life decisions.

"She only wants about 10 or so people this time and will make a second trip here if necessary," Mrs Phillips said.

The $50 fee for participants was to cover travelling costs, she said.

Ms Martin, 42, was released in December after serving half of a 15-month sentence for assisting her mother Joy, 69, to die in May 1999.

Ms Martin and Bruce Corney have since formed Dignity NZ Trust to keep the issue in the public eye.

- NZPA