This letter and others on these pages give examples of good points to raise in writing to MPs or Peers about the Joffe Bill. Put the ideas in your own words and add a personal angle based on your own experience of the issues.

Dear...

I am writing to express my concern about the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which aims to legalise assisted suicide and receives its second reading in the House of Lords on 12 May.

I believe that the proper response of a responsible government is not to provide assistance with suicide but rather to ensure that there is adequate funding to provide proper care for all who need it. Good palliative care may depend on skilled personnel but it is neither technologically difficult nor expensive to provide.

If the law is ever changed to allow so called 'assisted dying' it is inevitable that economic pressure will be brought to bear on people, openly or more likely very subtly, to request early death in order to save money for the use relatives, society or a health service short of the resources it needs.

Killing is very cost effective – it does not cost much for a lethal injection, That is why we need to promote care, not killing, and hold onto laws which protect vulnerable people.

I urge you to oppose this bill.

Yours sincerely