A man suffering from terminal cancer gathered his family and friends together for one final celebration of his life before taking the medication that would kill him.

TJ Mutchler was living in constant pain as his pancreatic cancer worsened, and doctors gave him just weeks to live.

"If you can think of the worst flu youve ever had and you get the cold sweats and then have someone stab a hot poker in your insides and just twist it around," Mutchler said in a video by euthanasia advocacy group Compassion and Choices.

"Looking at it, man, I am going to die. I dont want to."

Knowing he was on the verge of death, Mutchler's friends and family threw him two "going away" parties in his hometown of Billings, Montana.

Hundreds of people came to the first party in November, with his mother Leslie saying everybody "got together and laughed".

"His friends are all young people and its hard to wrap yourself around death at that age," she told People.

"Some people felt a little awkward, saying, I dont know what to do. Ive never done this before and it was like, Well, I want you guys to come and see him while you can.

"It was, Lets not get together for his funeral. Lets get together to celebrate his life while hes still alive.'"

By last week, Mutchler's condition had deteriorated so much that he was in constant pain and was frequently vomiting.

He weighed just 57kg towards the end, devastatingly thin for a 195cm-tall man.

He set the date of his death as February 19, and gathered his family together.

"My mother, his dad, his brother, me, his best friend and Keri, his girlfriend, were all with him at the end," his mother said.

"We all gave him a hug and said goodbye and he administered his medication.

"He fell asleep within 10minutes of taking the medication and three hours later he was gone."

Euthanasia is legal in Montana thanks to a successful lawsuit filed by his own grandfather Bob Baxter.

Suffering from terminal lymphoma, Baxter died hours after a district court ruled in his favour in 2008.

Montana's Supreme Court upheld the decision.

But the day after Mutchler's death, Republican state legislator Brad Tschida introduced a bill that would make doctors who prescribe euthanasia drugs liable to be charged with homicide.

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Dying man gathers his family together for final hours before ... - 9Honey