SA scientist sentenced for helping mother die

A scientist who helped his terminally ill mother die in New Zealand has been sentenced to five months of home detention.

The Otago Daily Times newspaper said 50-year-old Sean Davison, a South Africa-based microbiologist, wrote a book in which he described how his 85-year-old mother Patricia, who lived in New Zealand, was in pain in 2006 during the last few months of her life.