Lecretia Seales died in the early hours of Friday morning. Credit:Facebook She did not have the long, painful death she feared. At about 11.30pm on Thursday Seales began having respiratory problems and died at about 12.35am on Friday from natural causes. Even two days ago Seales was able to say hello on the telephone to Brett. Seales was kept abreast of developments in her case, but it was not clear whether she was aware of the judgment issued to lawyers at 3pm on Thursday and notified to family at 4pm.

Everyone was relieved Seales had her day in court and got to make her point in public. She and her husband were intensely private but had been richly rewarded for their decision to speak out, Brett said. 'Should be applauded' Euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin, who was convicted of attempting to murder her dying mother with an overdose of morphine in 1999, said Seales made an important stand. "We all have the right to self-autonomy in our dying - it is our life and it is our choice and Lecretia made a very strong case for that and should be applauded and appreciated for spending her precious time and energy on this," Martin told the Paul Henry Show.

Carole Sweney from the Voluntary Euthanasia Society said Seales "put everything she had" into her fight. "I think Lecretia's a hero, really," Sweney said on the Paul Henry Show. Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer said she was "my kind of public lawyer". "She always thinks of others first. She never complains. I salute her." Parliamentary inquiry mooted

Seales had been seeking a declaration that her doctor would not risk prosecution if she were to assist Seales to end her life, in the event that her final days became unbearable to her. Lawyers Andrew Butler, Chris Curran and Catherine Marks also argued that denying their client lawful access to physician-assisted death amounted to a breach of Seales' rights and fundamental freedoms under the New Zealand Bill of Rights. Speaking on the Paul Henry Show, National MP Judith Collins said she thought Parliament would have to deal with the issue, but in the past private Members' Bills had been "a bit short and sharp", without considering all the factors. Collins said MPs were the right people to start the conversation, but a wide range of people needed to be consulted and heard on the issue. Labour deputy leader Annette King said it was a brave thing that Seales had done, but it was not a decision for the courts to make.

"This is a Parliamentary decision that has to be made, and maybe the time is right for the discussion," she said on the Paul Henry Show. King thought it was time for a Parliamentary committee to examine the issue of euthanasia, rather than have another private Member's Bill put forward. The public needed to have a say in any inquiry, King said. Brain tumour diagnosis Seales, who had worked for law firm Chen Palmer, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and as a leading law reformer, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in 2011.

The tumour had already colonised a quarter of her brain, and she was given just weeks to live. She underwent surgery to "prune" the tumour, and also has radiating therapy to control its growth. Surgery bought her several more years but a recent MRI showed the tumour was advancing. Seales became increasingly paralysed over the past week and was moved into a hospital bed in her home on the weekend. Since then her husband Matt Vickers and mother Shirley Seales had been caring for Seales, supported by Mary Potter Hospice and the Capital & Coast DHB district nursing team.

Seales had said she fully supported the need for legal protections for the vulnerable, so they were not influenced to take their lives. But preventing her, and others in her situation, from exercising their fundamental human rights was draconian. "I am the one who has been inflicted with this disease, no-one else. It is my life that has been cut short. "So who else but me should have the authority to decide if and when the disease and its effects are so intolerable that I would prefer to die?" Seales' battle was reminiscent of terminally-ill woman Brittany Maynard, who ended her own life at home in Portland, in the US state of Oregon, on November 1 2014.

The 29-year-old made plans to die on her own terms, in the process becoming the public face of the right-to-die movement. - Stuff