Voluntary assisted-dying advocates are pushing for NSW parliament to sit extra days amid concerns legislation allowing terminally ill people to die on their own terms has stalled.
The contentious bill would give those with a terminal illness and expected to live for less than 12 months the right to expedite their death.
The legislation passed in the lower house last year with a margin of 20 votes and is due to be debated in the upper house on Wednesday, but there are concerns insufficient time has been allocated for debate on the bill.
Gavin Pattullo, 51, an anaesthetist and pain management specialist, whose wife Vanessa took her own life in 2018 after a 14-year battle with leukemia joined a rally at parliament advocating for a speedy parliamentary debate.
"Because of a lack of VAD bill she had to do that by herself without saying a proper goodbye to loved ones," he told AAP.
His wife, who was also a doctor, developed a severe lung disease during her treatment.
"Rather than dying a slow death by asphyxiation, my wife chose to end her own life, on her own choosing," he said lamenting his inability to be by her side in her final moments.
He pointed to Victoria's laws as a model to follow where there is an extensive process patients must go through in order to qualify for VAD.
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, who introduced the bill in 2021 to the lower house, told reporters it was long overdue to have a debate followed by a vote.
If the bill passes NSW would become the final Australian state to allow voluntary assisted dying.
"What we need is for the Upper House and the government to wake up that this a critical issue for the people of NSW," he said.
"If we don't act, if we don't vote what we will see happen is ... people dying horrific deaths, people with an advanced terminal illness taking their own life to prevent further suffering," he said.
Labor MP Alex Searle, one of 28 co-sponsors of the bill, is pushing for the debate to happen on Fridays in addition to the established parliamentary sitting days.
Dying With Dignity NSW and Go Gentle Australia placed full page ads in newspapers on Wednesday urging the upper house MLCs to not drag their feet on the bill.
"This bill hands the choice of whether you suffer or not at the end of life back to the people who are terminally ill. It doesn't put it in the hands of the doctor, it puts it in the hands of the people," Go Gentle Australia CEO Kiki Paul told AAP.
Euthanasia advocate Andrew Denton, who watched his father struggle with a terminal illness, said "it's inconceivable that NSW will remain the only state in Australia without these protections".
"People in NSW don't die any differently to people in every other state," he told AAP.
"The tragedy will be if this parliament doesn't act is the suicides ... and the terrible deaths will continue."
