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People with advanced terminal illnesses will be able to seek voluntary euthanasia from 2019 onwards, under a proposal put forward by the government of the Australian state of Victoria on Friday.
The Victorian Parliament will hold a conscience vote on medically assisted suicide in late 2017, meaning Members of Parliament will be free to vote on the legislation regardless of their party's position on the issue.
If the legislation is passed, Victoria will become the first Australian state to legalize euthanasia.
An expert panel, chaired by the former president of the Australian Medical Association Brian Owler, on Friday delivered its report with 66 recommendations that will establish the framework for the legislation.
"In essence, this reform is about alleviating the suffering of people who are dying and it's about respecting their choice about the manner and the timing of their death," Owler told reporters in Melbourne.
"I'm sure that this topic will be debated in the coming weeks and months and months.
"We think that this model, which we acknowledge is the most conservative model for assisted dying in the world, is the right model for Victoria."
The panel recommended that euthanasia be made available to patients aged 18 or older who possess a "sound decision-making capability" with a condition that is expected to cause death within 12 months.
Requests to die must come from the patients themselves, and they must be assessed by two independent doctors, one of whom must be an expert in the patient's illness, before they are given the lethal drug.
"This is the most conservative model or framework that exists in the world," Owler said.
Jill Hennessy, the state's minister for health, said there are 68 safeguards within the recommendations to protect Victorians and medical professionals.
"It is my very firm, yet personal view, that we need to do better by those that are dying, those that are terminally ill, those that are bearing suffering that is unspeakable for them," Hennessy said.
"We are a death-denying society. It's my view that it is cruel to let the status quo continue to be the state of law in the state of Victoria."
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
