Former National candidate killed mother

Well that is the possible tabloid headline. The Herald on Sunday reports:

An -born scientist has admitted in a leaked manuscript to giving his -ravaged mother a lethal overdose of morphine. …

Sean Davison published a book last month about his 85-year-old mother's final days, without disclosing the role he played after his mother summoned him home to Dunedin to help her die.

However, a copy of his original manuscript, supplied anonymously to the Herald on Sunday this week, contains the incriminating details that were deleted from the book. …

Davison's memoir, Before We Say Goodbye, was published last month. Adapted from his diary, the book described his mother's repeated requests for him to help her die, and her unsuccessful 33-day hunger strike. But it skirted around the circumstances of her , in October 2006 at her Dunedin home.

However, in the manuscript he reveals she died hours after he gave her “a lethal drink of crushed morphine ” dissolved in a glass of .

He wrote: “I held it in front of her and said, ‘If you drink this you will die.' I really wanted to be so absolutely sure that there was no hesitation.

“She answered, ‘You're a wonderful son.”‘

It is very sad that our laws forced Davison to do what he did, but he did so out of live and a desire to end his mother's suffering. A terrible burden to bear though.

Sean was my first candidate – he stood for in 1987, and I was the Regional Chair of the Otago/Southland . A very nice and decent guy.

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