"I recall feeling utterly helpless, physically awful and alone. I hated the situation I was in, a situation I couldn't escape from ... This mindset unfortunately has continued from time to time, post-treatment, when I get a bad result, when I compare my current life to where I expected it to be, or when I look at my friends' lives.
"During all these points of time, had the choice of death actually been available, for once in my life, I may have taken it into consideration.
"And that is exactly what I didn't need or actually want.
"And that is the exact type of person who you as a committee don't want to capture."
Scanlon, who is now in remission, said others in the same situation might be more vulnerable than her.
"I was surrounded by support and love, I had an expectation of a cure, and I am young, I am educated, I am self-aware.
"Imagine if that wasn't the situation ... By condoning death as being an acceptable solution to a problem, we will shift the moral standpoint for a number of highly vulnerable patients."
She concluded by saying that death "should always be left as an outcome, not as a medically-administered and legally-condoned choice".
Another submitter, Wairarapa woman Tracey van de Raaij, gave a contrasting view.
She said she supported a law change because of an experience several years ago in which she witnessed the aftermath of her neighbour's suicide.
The terminally ill man took his own life after a struggle with cancer, and van de Raaij said she was asked by emergency services to assist his distraught partner.
"I turned up at the house to a very distraught neighbour and a naked man covered in blood and under bodily fluids."
After the incident, her neighbour was treated like a criminal, van de Raaij said, adding that a law change was needed to avoid similar cases.
The Health Committee has received 22,000 submissions.
In a rare move, it has agreed to hear from every person who asked to make an oral submissions - around 1800 people.
