'It was so totally undignified what she was enduring. She wanted it to end.”

The tears well as Avice Jacobson shares the wretched ordeal of an aged aunt – 99-years-old, suffering terminal cervical cancer, bed-ridden and according to Avice wanted to be released from the pain, suffering and loneliness.

Avice Jacobson. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

'I feel so angry.” The tears she has been holding back begin to flow freely. 'It's was just horrible, just awful.”

Avice says her aunt, despite her illness, had her wits about her. She was smart enough to be making decisions about her life, whether she wanted to live or not.

'She told me she had had enough of the pain and wanted someone to help her end her life peacefully.”

That someone was her doctor.

'He refused,” says Avice. 'He said, ‘No, I can't do that'.”

So she took what she believed to be her only other option.

'To starve – she refused food and drink.” Avice says her aunt was slowly committing suicide. 'Why does the law allow this?” she asks.

Avice is telling this story as a backdrop to her submission to the Health Select Committee, which will investigate euthanasia in New Zealand.

The investigation's prompted by former MP Maryan Street's petition to investigate 'public attitudes towards the introduction of legislation which would permit medically assisted dying in the event of a terminal illness or an irreversible condition which makes life unbearable”. Submissions on one of the great issues of our time closed this week.

Avice's submission is blunt, business-like and all about choice.

'If I become terminally ill and suffer pain, severe stress and loss of dignity then I believe it is my human right to ask for the means by which I can peacefully terminate my life.”

'End of life choice is something I have thought about for many years and I think it is time for a law change. It is time to become a truly humane society.”

Just before Christmas and days before her 99^th birthday, Avice's aunt started taking tea again. Then she died.

'I hear about people who are cruel to their animals and then they are prosecuted. But it's OK to do that to those who are dearest to us” says Avice.

And when it's her turn, this considered, healthy and spritely octogenarian wants the right to say 'now my time has come”.

It might not be at the ultimate terminal state, but a month or so earlier. 'I would want my family around me, we would celebrate what we have, then say goodbye and go.” Quietly, painlessly and with dignity.

'My aunt was deprived of that respect.”

But Avice is demanding that respect for herself. 'It should also be my right to say no, I have changed my mind. I will put up with this for the next few days because the sky is so beautifully blue and I want to look at it.”

But if the sky darkens, if the clouds roll in, Avice is ready. As far as anyone can legally be ready.

'I have an advance directive with my doctor which says I don't want to be kept alive or resuscitated in a life-threatening situation. And I have asked for all the drugs possible if I am in pain, even if it hastens my death.”

Her family agrees. They have said whatever makes her happy. 'They wouldn't care. They would say, ‘It's your life Mum'.”

If Avice sounds like someone with a death wish, someone approaching their time, think again.

As we're talking about 30 or 40 cruise liner tourists cycle by the Sun Media office on the Strand. She waves them down, chats them and announces she is going to buy one of the small-wheeled bicycles.

'I just want people to put aside the emotion and nonsense. It's about personal choice. Plain and simple.”

Avice says there are powerful lobby groups at play in this debate. 'And I hope everyone has made their feelings known. I hope they will make a difference. Make a change.”

The chair of the select committee is National MP Simon O'Connor, who is opposed to voluntary euthanasia because 'I don't support the killing of another human being”.

Opponents say any change to the law to assist a handful of people would be 'the thin end of the wedge”.

However Act leader David Seymour has pushed the issue to another level championing a member's bill based on Maryan Street's earlier legislation. It would allow mentally competent adults who have a terminal illness likely to end their life within six months, or have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, the choice to have a doctor help end their life at the time of their choosing.

The other middle of the road option is for New Zealand not to be a leader on the issue but wait and see if other similar countries such as Australia and Britain opt for a law change.

Government officials will now process the hundreds of submissions to the health select committee, hear some submitters and then make recommendations, perhaps including that the Government consider law changes.