A retired public servant from Leura is standing in Saturday's election as a member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Party.
The party is fielding candidates in the NSW Upper House for the first time.
Richard Mills, who worked as a policy adviser in Canberra for many years and subsequently taught government at Sydney University, became involved with the Dying with Dignity movement six years ago, eventually ending up as president of the NSW branch.
He was asked by Corey McCann, who founded the Voluntary Euthanasia Party in 2013 to agitate for legislative reform, to stand in the NSW election.
Mr Mills pointed out that studies and polls regularly show that more than 80 per cent of people favour law reform to allow voluntary euthanasia, yet politicians refuse to reflect that in the parliament.
Mr Mills said the party believed someone dying of a terminal illness had the right to choose a peaceful and dignified death with compassionate, medical assistance.
"This is a cause that I find essentially right, it's a fundamental human right to be able to choose," Mr Mills said.
The party is fielding 15 candidates, ranging from their early 20s to their 70s.
Mr Mills said many join the party after watching close family or friends suffer long, painful and often harrowing deaths.
While that was not his personal experience, he was still firmly in favour of being able to control the timing of death.
"Whose life is it anyway? I don't see that government or a doctor and certainly not a church has the right to say to me, you can't manage the manner and time of your death in the way you want to," he said.
