I'll fight on, says elderly right-to-die case husband

Ralph Vincent, who will not be prosecuted over the death of his wife Vicky last year, says his sole aim now is to advance the cause of voluntary euthanasia.

Nelson Detective Sergeant Kevin Tiernan told Mr Vincent on Wednesday that, due to insufficient evidence, police would not be pursuing criminal charges against him.

"My sole aim in life is to try and relieve the suffering of people who are in pain for whom the medical profession is unable to give ready relief, or are just incapacitated to the extent that they no longer want to live," Mr Vincent said.

Mr Vincent, 84, was leaving yesterday to speak at a seminar in Sydney for the Exit organisation at the invitation of prominent Australian voluntary euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke.

He said he "hadn't the faintest idea" what he would do when he returned next week, but he hoped to continue to help the right-to-die movement.

Vicky Vincent was found dead, with a plastic bag over her head, in the couple's home in Nelson last September after years of suffering a painful bone illness.

The police investigation centred on whether her death had been a suicide or an assisted suicide.

The case will now be referred to a coroner's inquest.

Mr Vincent says he was "completely ambivalent" about the police decision.

Detective Inspector John Winter said police had reviewed the case and sought legal opinion on it.

He said he was satisfied that the decision not to charge Mr Vincent had been the right one.

Mr Vincent said assisting a suicide was a criminal offence and both he and his late wife had wanted the law changed.

"In those dire circumstances where a person considers life not worth living, then they should be allowed ... to die with family around them and not have to slink off by themselves to die miserably and alone."

Mr Vincent said the investigation had enabled him to gain publicity for the voluntary euthanasia movement and to help people in circumstances similar to his own.

"Mostly I'm pleased I'm not going to be arrested - that's for sure - but it would not have been dreadful if I was."

Wanganui woman Lesley Martin, who has been formally charged with the attempted murder of her terminally ill mother in 1999, will also attend the Sydney seminar.

- NZPA