A woman who admitted helping her partner kill himself has been sentenced to two years of intensive supervision.
Karen Robson, 47, was sentenced in the High Court at Auckland this morning for the rare charge of belonging to a suicide pact - a charge she pleaded guilty to earlier this month.
As part of the conditions of her sentence she must live at an approved address, undertake counselling, not use drugs and attend drug assessments.
When handing down the sentence, Justice Raynor Asher spoke of the need to "revere and protect human life".
He said it was only the second reported New Zealand case of sentencing for a mutual suicide attempt.
Robson and her partner Glenn Bernard Paterson, 45, made a suicide pact on September 9 last year.
Two days later Mr Paterson died from asphyxiation by using the exhaust fumes of a car. Robson was revived.
The victim's mother, Mrs Paterson, tearfully read a victim impact statement to the court telling of the pain she felt from losing her son.
"I love my son. I miss my son. I think of Glenn every day and every day I shed a tear," she said.
Only three days before her son's death, he and Robson had "seemed happy and content".
Earlier they had been excitedly planning their wedding but it was delayed and the pair were struggling financially and emotionally.
"Yes, Glenn had been getting depressed but I know my son and this is not the path he would have chosen for himself. I can only ask you Karen why?," said Mrs Paterson.
Robson and Mr Paterson had a long-term history of drug addiction and mental illness, the court heard.
"This is essentially an irrational act driven by a very low mood," said Robson's lawyer David Niven.
The debate over euthanasia resurfaced this week when Prime Minister John Key said he believed the practice was widely used in the country's hospitals.
He told Newstalk ZB that if he was terminally in and in pain, he would want euthanasia to be a legal option.
"I look at a situation where I think there's a lot of euthanasia that effectively happens in our hospitals."
Hospice New Zealand medical adviser Sandy MacLeod said Mr Key's comment was misguided and incorrect.
She said stopping treatment which was no longer effective was not euthanasia, and prolonging such treatment could increase suffering and distress.
Last year Dunedin professor Sean Davison made headlines when he was sentenced to home detention for helping his mother die.
He said he stepped in because she had been on a hunger strike for 33 days. The Herald on Sunday revealed an unpublished manuscript, in which he revealed how he had crumbled a dozen morphine tablets into her water glass and lifted it to her lips.
Davison wrote: "This is ghastly ... too unbelievable. What kind of sane person would keep their mother in a bedroom to rot to death?"
Labour MP Maryan Street said it was cases like Davison's that prompted her to submit a private member's bill to decriminalise euthanasia.
It is illegal to help someone else commit suicide. Doctors can give treatment such as morphine for pain, knowing that it may hasten death, but they cannot do it with death as the intended outcome.
WHERE TO GET HELP
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111
Or call:
Youthline 0800 376 633
Lifeline 0800 543 354
Depression Helpline 0800 111 757
What's Up 0800 942 8787 (noon-midnight)
