Mercy killing son may be confined in New Zealand

SOUTH African Professor Sean Davison, who this week pleaded guilty to the assisted suicide of his mother, faces jail or house arrest in New Zealand - and his wife and their two young sons will not be able to join him there.

Davison, 50, and his partner Raine Pan had planned to marry next year.

He will be sentenced on November 24.

Davison this week pleaded guilty to assisting his ailing mother, Patricia, to die by giving her a lethal dose of morphine.

He told the Sunday Times: "As far as my family is concerned it's as if I'm already in jail."

While the University of the Western Cape professor was in court in Dunedin, Raine Pan juggled her job as a shop owner in Cape Town with looking after their children and helping her sick mother.

In the Dunedin High Court, the prosecution changed the charge against Davison from attempted murder to a lesser charge of assisted suicide. He decided to plead guilty.

"I was aware that euthanasia campaigners wanted me to let the trial continue so I would go down in a blaze of glory for the cause. But I am not a martyr, I'm not a hero, I am a normal man who should be with his family - not sitting in jail."

Davison's lawyer, Roger Laybourn, said the charge could carry a maximum jail sentence of 14 years, but that it was likely that Davison would be placed under house arrest in New Zealand.

Patricia Davison was living in New Zealand when her son gave her the morphine. She had asked him to help her die.

"The judge has asked for a home detention report which shows that this [sentence] is a possibility," said Laybourn. This would mean Davison would have to wear an electric anklet that would set off an alarm if he left the property.

Supporters in T-shirts with the words "Every Mum Needs A Sean" greeted Davison outside court this week. The Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand has donated R33000 towards his legal fees.

Laybourn and euthanasia campaigners hailed as a victory the fact that Davison would not be found guilty of attempted murder , but he did not agree .

"Euthanasia campaigners are saying that this court case is a victory to the cause. But to me, my family, and my mother's memory, it is a personal tragedy. I still can't accept that I am now a criminal. My mother could never have imagined this would happen to me."

Pan is collecting newspaper clippings to help explain to the children, when they are older, why Davison has a criminal record. Said Davison: "My decision to plead guilty to assisted suicide was made at the last possible moment. I found it hard to plead guilty because I couldn't accept that what I did to help my mother was a crime.

"It was one of the worst nights of my life. This decision was going to have huge implications for Raine and our boys so I phoned her at 4.30am in my desperation for an answer."

His family will not be able to join him in New Zealand if he is placed under house arrest because Raine's mother is too sickly to make the move.

Davison was arrested last year after admitting, in the original manuscript of a book on her last days in Dunedin, that he had given morphine to his cancer-stricken, 85-year-old mother.

He said this week: "This unfortunate journey just never seems to end. I am really looking forward to living a normal life again one day soon."