Inclusion Daily Express -- Martens Told Undercover Cop She Was Present At Nun's Suicide (Oct. 22, 2004)

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Martens Told Undercover Cop She Was Present At Nun's Suicide
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 22, 2004

DUNCAN, BRITISH COLUMBIA--A jury heard more testimony this week in the trial of Evelyn Martens, 74, including a secretly taped conversation she had with an undercover police officer.

Martens, a founding member and former membership director for the Right to Die Society, an organization that challenges Canadian laws which make assisted suicide illegal, has been charged with two counts of illegally helping people to kill themselves.

Jurors heard testimony surrounding the death of former Duncan nun Monique Charest, 64, who died on January 7, 2002. Charest did not have a terminal illness.

Brenda Hurn, 82, a friend of Martens and fellow member of the society, testified that Charest told them she experienced back pain and was afraid she might have seizures. Charest said she preferred dying over facing a life of physical and emotional pain. A doctor testified that Charest did have back pain, a stomach disorder, heart problems and anxiety, but her condition was not terminal.

Hurn told the jury that both she and Martens were in Charest's apartment when she died, but that Charest killed herself.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Charest said she died of a heart arrhythmia, a disturbance in the beating of the heart. Police believe she suffocated with the use of an "exit bag". The device features a collar that can be sealed so no air gets in. It is attached with hoses to tanks that replace the oxygen with helium at each breath, eventually suffocating the person wearing it.

Martens met on June 26, 2002 with an undercover Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, whom she believed to be Charest's out-of-town goddaughter. During their conversation, which was secretly recorded, Martens is heard telling the officer she was present when Charest died.

"It was very fast. It was painless," Martens said. "She was happy to go."

"I've helped other people," Martens told the undercover Mountie. "I can be charged for just being there. She did it herself, but I was still there."

On the way to the June 26 meeting with the RCMP officer, a team of surveillance cops secretly followed Martens to the Vancouver home of school teacher Leyanne Burchell. Martens was in Burchell's home for about an hour, before leaving to meet up with the undercover officer at a cafe.

Police later returned to Burchell's home to find her body. Burchell, 52, was reportedly in the final stages of terminal stomach cancer. She left a suicide note.

Martens was arrested as she got off a ferry returning to Vancouver Island later that day. Police found helium tanks, an exit bag, and sleep-inducing drugs -- made out in Burchell's name -- in her van.

Under Canadian law, someone "who counsels a person to commit suicide, or aids or abets a person to commit suicide, whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years."

Some disability rights groups have long opposed efforts to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, so called "mercy killing". They argue that doing so would further endanger the lives of people with certain disabilities who are already considered undesirable or a "burden" on society. Some have noted that a large percentage of people who ask for assistance in suicide are not in the final stages of a terminal illness, but fear losing control and independence that having a disability might bring.

The trial is expected to last through the end of the month. Martens' attorneys have indicated that she plans to take the case to Canada's Supreme Court if the provincial court does not rule in her favor.

Related:
"Woman planned own death, sister says" (Canadian Press via Globe and Mail)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/1022a.htm
"Woman described suicide to crying undercover cop" (Canadian Press via Toronto Star)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/1022b.htm

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