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.

In 1994 a House of Lords' Select Committee reported on euthanasia, and unanimously recommended no change in the law. Its Chairman, neurologist Lord Walton of Detchant, later described in Parliament their concerns about such legislation: 'We concluded that it was virtually impossible to ensure that all acts of euthanasia were truly voluntary and that any liberalisation of the law in the United Kingdom could not be abused. We were also concerned that vulnerable people - the elderly, lonely, sick or distressed - would feel pressure, whether real or imagined, to request early death.'

People who are dying often feel a burden on relatives, carers and a society short of resources. A law allowing assisted suicide would place them under huge pressure and no safeguards would ever adequately protect the vulnerable. Emotional and financial pressure would inexorably be brought to bear.

I urge you to oppose this bill.

Yours sincerely