Professor Sean Davison, who fulfilled his mother's wish for voluntary euthanasia, was recently sentenced to five months of home detention in New Zealand.

In 2006, Davison had gone back home to New Zealand to care for his mother who had been diagnosed with cancer in 2004. His mother, Dr. Patricia Davison, had been a general physician and psychiatrist.

After fighting with cancer for two years, she finally decided that she wanted to die by starvation and should by no means be resuscitated.

"... I wish to be the one to decide when I stop fluids," she wrote in her will, according to Nigel Benson from the Otago Daily Times.

During that time, Davison had kept a diary where he chronicled their daily lives and his mother's battle with terminal cancer. The diary led to a book entitled "Before We Say Goodbye."

"I am sure this book will generate debate, as my mother was an experienced medical practitioner who had thought hard about the issues surrounding voluntary euthanasia... I decided to publish the book of my experiences and the circumstances I found myself in to help others think about the issues surrounding death," said the younger Davison to Benson.

Published in 2009, the book revealed that Davison gave his mother a dose of morphine which resulted in her death. The attempted murder charge was then filed against him in 2010.

In November earlier this year, Davison had been cleared of the attempted murder charge filed against him. Instead, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of inciting and procuring his mother's suicide.

Despite passive euthanasia being legal in New Zealand, actively aiding and abetting in euthanasia is considered illegal.

Passive euthanasia involves withholding the necessary medical treatment from the patient whereas active euthanasia involves the use of harmful substances or methods to kill the patient.

Although Davison's mother had requested to die by starvation (which would have been considered passive euthanasia), she ultimately died due to the fatal dose of morphine given by Davison.

"I'm pleased that he is getting rid of the attempted murder charge. But it is unfair that he has to plead guilty to the other charges because what he did was help his mother, as his mother wished... And now he has to say he's guilty, which is hard for him," said Raine Pan, Davison's partner and the mother to their two sons, as quoted by The New Zealand Herald.

Back in 2003, the "Death with Dignity Bill" in favor of medically assisted suicide was proposed in New Zealand. However, it failed to get approval from the New Zealand Parliament.