New Zealand police charged an US citizen Friday with assisting the suicide of a chronically ill woman in 2007.
They issued a warrant for the arrest of a 48-year-old woman who lives in North Carolina and said she would be tried for helping Auckland resident Audrey Willis, 49, kill herself if she returned to New Zealand, dpa reported.
Police did not name the accused, but local media reported two years ago that police were investigating Susan Wilson, said to be a member of Compassionate Chaplaincy, a US euthanasia group that actively assisted people to die.
Wilson told the Sunday Star-Times in May 2008 that she had visited Wallis, who suffered from chronic pain and had problems breathing, in Auckland and they had talked about voluntary euthanasia but she had not helped her die.
"I really think people should have the right to say 'I've had enough, thank you very much, I'm going out on my own terms'," Wilson said.
Wilson said she had a PhD in psychology and counselled people who wanted to end their lives but did not help them.
Asked about the death of Wallis, she said, "If there's a crime in being a friend, then you can charge me, but she was just that."
Detective Sergeant Scott Armstrong, who heads an investigation into Wallis's death, said assisted suicide was an offence under the Crimes Act and carried a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment, but was not covered in the New Zealand-US Extradition Treaty.
The detective said the accused had declined an offer to return to New Zealand voluntarily at no cost to her to face the charge and the arrest warrant would