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Giving Death A Hand: The British Columbia Grandmother at the hear of an international network dealing with assisted suicide
Aired November 23,
2005 at 9pm
on CBC-TV

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Watch this story online.
REPORTER: Hana Gartner
PRODUCER: Kit Melmad

WEB EXCLUSIVE

Evelyn Martens speaks about her role in assisted suicide. Read her story and more of her interview with the fifth estate.


GIVING DEATH A HAND
Evelyn followed by camera
Evelyn Martens was charged with assisting suicide.
In June of 2002, a 72-year-old grandmother named Evelyn Martens was arrested by the RCMP as she traveled by ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, British Columbia. She was charged with assisting in the suicides of two British Columbia women. Although committing suicide is not illegal in this country, assisting someone to do so is.

THREE CASES OF ASSISTED SUICIDE
The fifth estate story, "Giving Death a Hand", tells the story of Evelyn Martens, her life and her connection not only to the two women here in Canada, but, also to the suicide of another woman half way around the world, in Ireland. "Giving Death a Hand" examines these three cases and raises the difficult moral and legal questions associated with the issue of assisted suicide in Canada.

What makes a 72-year-old grandmother risk becoming involved in a criminal activity that could send her to prison for the rest of her life? What makes her decide whom she will help and why? Evelyn Martens did not take the witness stand at her trial in 2004.

brother
Martens was deeply
affected by her brother's death from cancer.
A REVEALING INTERVIEW
But, now, in her first extensive public interview, she speaks to the fifth estate's Hana Gartner about her life and her reasons for doing what she did. She tells Hana Gartner about her brother's death twenty years ago from cancer and how seeing him suffer was a major turning point in her life. "I don't want my family or any of my loved ones to die like he did. No way. Animals are treated better than that," she told Gartner.

Her brother's death propelled Evelyn Martens to join The Right to Die Society in Canada. She began stuffing envelopes and performing small duties and eventually was put in charge of the group's membership. And by the time she was arrested, she had helped develop an effective suicide method: what is called the "exit bag". She sold and shipped the bag to people all over the world.

"Giving Death a Hand" is the story of one woman who is seen by some as a hero and a crusader for the cause of dying with dignity and by others as a purveyor of death. In the end, Evelyn Martens would be acquitted by a jury of the crimes for which she was charged. Whether one believes she was right or wrong in doing what she did, there is no denying the impact her story has had on the assisted suicide debate in this country.

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