“Asking a doctor to end the life of a person who can no longer say, ‘This is what I want,’ is enormous.”

This was how Andrew Denton spoke of what he calls the hardest conversation of all — voluntary assisted dying (VAD) for those with advanced dementia.

The TV presenter who played a major role in the country’s embrace of euthanasia was speaking at the National Press Club yesterday where he announced research that will begin by asking VAD doctors about the option of expanding VAD to those who will lack the capacity to say no at the time of their death.

“By a very wide margin, the number one question we are asked is about Australia’s biggest killer — dementia,” he said.