A New Zealand euthanasia campaigner was convicted yesterday of attempting to murder her terminally ill mother.

Lesley Martin, 40, was found guilty by a jury in Wanganui of attempting to kill her mother with a lethal morphine overdose. But she was cleared on a second charge, of attempting to kill her mother by suffocating her with a pillow.

Martin faces up to 10 years in prison. She was granted bail until sentencing on April 30.

The charges were filed after Martin published a book on her mother's death, To Die Like a Dog, in which she wrote that she twice tried to end the suffering of 69-year-old Joy Martin.

In the first attempt she said she injected her dying mother with a morphine overdose, and later tried to suffocate her with a pillow. Her mother suffered from terminal bowel cancer.

Martin was only charged after publication of her book.

A postmortem examination found that cause of death was respiratory failure, possibly due to morphine poisoning or pneumonia. Martin helped found Exit New Zealand, a voluntary euthanasia lobby group. She campaigned for legalising voluntary euthanasia prior to her trial.

New Zealand 's parliament last year defeated legislation to legalise voluntary euthanasia, voting 60 to 58 against.