Having watched his mother starve herself to end her suffering, Ian Macdonald believes Australians should have the right to die with dignity.
The Liberal senator, in an impassioned speech in defence of assisted suicide in parliament on Thursday, said refusing food was the only option his mother had when she decided she'd had enough.
It was "an awful way to go" following an eight-year battle in the wake of a paralysing stroke.
Last year, he watched the same agony inflicted on his sister.
"I spent as much time with her as I could but she used to often say to me, 'Ian, if only I could go'.
"I often said to my wife as we were coming home from visiting my sister, 'we wouldn't do this to our cat'."
Senator Macdonald says he euthanased his cat because he couldn't bear to watch it suffer, but "when it comes to people, we sort of tolerate it".
Should he ever be in that position, he'd want the right to decide how long he stayed alive, suffering.
The Senate is debating a private bill, proposed by Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm, to repeal a 1997 federal law banning the ACT and Northern Territory from legislating to allow assisted suicide.
Senator Leyonhjelm believes people have a right to make decisions about their own lives and is calling for an end to "extraordinarily cruel" laws banning euthanasia.
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi said it was inconsistent for Australia to legalise assisted suicide while spending millions treating mental illness, warning euthanasia laws had got out of control overseas.
"Once we open this Pandora's box we do not know what's going to come out of it.
"People not even consenting to euthanasia being killed by nurses without reference to a doctor, children, people with anorexia, people with depressive illnesses.
"I just find that extraordinary, and yet that is the absolute lived example."
Family First senator Bob Day said often it was family members, not the patient, that wanted suffering to end, sometimes with ulterior motives.
"No matter how many safeguards ... the hunger for power, revenge or money can steer its way around many hurdles."
Palliative care services weren't available in the Northern Territory when it legalised euthanasia in the 1990s, but now that they were, the former laws should remain "dead and buried".
Indigenous Australians were overwhelmingly against euthanasia and would be disinclined to seek medical treatment if it were again legalised in the Northern Territory, for fear they'll be euthanased.
Labor frontbencher Doug Cameron said it was horrendous to watch loved ones die a long and painful death, having watched several friends die excruciating deaths from diseases like mesothelioma.
"If we are a community that cares about each other, we should care about how people die, about the suffering of people."
* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
