Assisted dying could be legal in Victoria within two years after the state government promised a quick response to a report into the Australia-first changes.
A Ministerial Advisory Panel on Friday revealed its recommended guidelines, including that terminally ill patients must have less than a year to live to be eligible.
The medication - which is yet to be finalised - would be dispensed in a lockable box by a pharmacist.
Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the state government will reply to the report within weeks, and have legislation before parliament by the end of 2017. Assisted dying could be in practice by 2019.
"Too many people have been denied compassion at the end of their lives. We can and must do better," the minister said.
The panel said its approach was compassionate but conservative, with strict eligibility criteria and rigorous assessments.
A patient would need to be expected to die within 12 months, show sufficient mental capacity to make the decision, and be a Victorian resident aged at least 18 years.
"(This) is not a framework that allows people a choice between living and dying," panel chairman and neurosurgeon Professor Brian Owler said.
"It is a compassionate response to people who are already dying and suffering and gives them a choice about the timing and manner of their death."
Eligible patients would need to make three requests to die, one of them written.
The final and verbal request would could be made 10 days after the first.
People with dementia would be excluded.
"This is about people who are suffering at the end of their lives who are going to die within weeks and months," Prof Owler said.
Patients will not be able to apply to die on the grounds of mental illness, but would not be excluded if they were also terminally ill.
The panel outlined 66 recommendations and 68 safeguards, including offences for inducing a patient to request assisted dying.
It also proposed offences for falsifying assisted-dying records and administering medication to someone who lacked the sufficient decision-making capacity.
Prof Owler says some people might not end up taking the medication because simply having it available could be of "sufficient comfort".
There would be no time limit on when the medication could be taken after being dispensed by a pharmacist.
A Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board would be set up to review each case and report any breaches, and it would also report to parliament every six months.
The assisted dying model would come into force 18 months after the legislation was passed to give health services and the community time to prepare.
Australian Medical Association Victoria president Lorraine Baker said the report appeared to have addressed most of the association's concerns.
Premier Daniel Andrews last year said he supported voluntary assisted dying after watching his father die from cancer.
If a bill were passed, Victoria would become the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise assisted dying since the Northern Territory's legislation in 1995, which was overturned by the federal government two years later.
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