The region's leading proponent of animal to human transplants says it would be "bloody stupid" for Australia to renew its ban on xenotransplantation.
A five-year moratorium on xenotransplantation, a field of science which offers the prospect of using a range of animal tissues and organs to treat human illness, is due to expire at year's end.
Professor Bob Elliott, who was born in Australia but relocated to New Zealand to continue his pioneering work in the field, says the five-year research ban should be allowed to lapse.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) will announce its decision in early December, and Prof Elliott says he and other Australian scientists remained optimistic the moratorium would be lifted.
"It would be bloody stupid (not to), and I don't believe they are stupid," he said of the NHMRC on Thursday.
"It was imposed in the first place because there was still some uncertainty about the safety of the procedure, and some uncertainty about whether there was any chance it would be effective.
"Both of those things have evolved in the direction of safety concerns being very much reduced, and the same goes for efficacy.
"It wasn't the case five years ago ... but now it would be going against the evidence to keep the moratorium on."
Prof Elliott has developed a promising technique that uses insulin-producing cells from pigs to treat type 1 diabetes in humans.
He said it was "pretty exciting times", noting that eight diabetics had completed an initial trial in Russia and another small trial was underway in New Zealand.
"We've got two patients off insulin, and one is still off - she's altogether not taking any immune-suppressant or anti-rejection drugs ... she's walking around with her diabetes, for the moment, cured," he said.
While the technique may not be a cure for everyone with the condition, Prof Elliott said it could make it more manageable, ensuring they were not "living on a knife's edge all the time".
Prof Elliott said the World Health Organisation had created guidelines for xenotransplantation research, and if Australia's moratorium was to expire then he could undertake similar trials in Australia.
"We've started trials in New Zealand, the first patient has been transplanted and we're separated by three hours by plane," Prof Elliott also said.
"There's nothing to stop him from going for a holiday to Sydney ... the whole thing is becoming a bit absurd."
The NHMRC is expected to announce its decision after a meeting in December, and the moratorium otherwise expires on December 31.
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