More than a thousand people are expected to request to end their lives in the first year of the assisted dying regime.
The chief medical officer Andrew Connolly says the Ministry of Health is expecting about 11000 patients to make the request, although it is predicting only about a third of those people will carry through.
The demand for assisted dying will have to be met by a workforce overwhelmingly opposed to it - with just ten percent of health practitioners telling the ministry they are "definitely willing" to participate.
Guyon Espiner reports.
