New Zealanders have voted overwhelmingly to legalise euthanasia.
Preliminary results of the binding referendum show a majority - 65.2% - voted in favour of the End of Life Choice Act being made a new law.
Once passed into law, the Act will allow people with a terminal illness and less than six months to live to choose assisted dying if they have the approval of two doctors.
Both Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and opposition leader Judith Collins had expressed support for the law, which is expected to come into effect in November 2021.
The campaign group Euthanasia-Free NZ said the law was "flawed".
It expressed concern that unlike in Canada and parts of the US where euthanasia is already legal, the New Zealand legislation does not include safeguards like requiring a cooling-off period or independent witnesses when a person signs their euthanasia request.
The group claimed that members of the New Zealand public were "generally uninformed" about the details of the Act and that the legislation could have been made "safer".
"The New Zealand Parliament voted down 111 out of 114 amendments that could have made this law safer," said Renée Joubert, Executive Officer of Euthanasia-Free NZ.
"Many amendments were rejected without even being debated. Two of the passed amendments were solely about the referendum.
"At least Parliament could have included the safeguards that have been standard requirements in US assisted dying laws for the past 22 years."
