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.

There has been much recent publicity to the effect that most people are in favour of a change in the law. But as the recent House of Lords Select Committee Report pointed out most polls of this nature are based on answers to Yes/No or Either/Or questions without any explanatory context and without other options - eg good quality palliative care - being offered.

In other words the answer you get depends very much how you ask the question. If you ask people if they would like help to die comfortably, most will say yes. If you ask them if they would like to receive a lethal injection most will say no.

Most people have little understanding of the complexities and dangers in changing the law in this way and opinion research consists therefore to a large extent of knee-jerk answers to emotive - and often leading – questions. In addition those most in favour of euthanasia tend to be the 'worried well'. Requests for euthanasia from people who are dying or who are disabled are very rare indeed, provided they are being properly cared for.

I urge you to oppose this bill and to fight for better services for the vulnerable

Yours sincerely