A group of nurses urged MPs to seize this “historic opportunity” to change the law on assisted dying, but opposition campaigners claimed a new bill was being “rushed through with haste indecent.”

The text of the bill should be published within a few days.

MPs will debate Labor MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on November 29 – the first such debate in the Commons for almost a decade.

Ms Leadbeater has already indicated that eligibility will depend on how long the patient has left to live, while medical and legal protection will likely take the form of doctors’ approval and judicial review in each case.

Seven current and former nurses have sent a letter, published by campaign group Dignity in Dying, to MPs – urging them to support the bill.

The signatories, including two palliative care nurses, a general nurse and a senior nursing assistant, said: “We are united by one wish: we all want to have a choice. »

They added: “For most, palliative care in hospice, hospital or at home will help them die the way they want.

“But we believe we must speak for those for whom palliative care cannot relieve suffering or provide the peaceful, painless death that everyone deserves.

“These are the people who need choices, and it is for them that we urge you to support the Terminally Ill (End of Life) Adults Bill. »

But Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, insisted MPs must reject the bill, saying “the safest law is the one we have now”.

He said: “This bill is being rushed through with indecent haste and ignores the deep-rooted problems with the UK’s broken and unequal palliative care system, the crisis in social care and the data from around the world which shows that change the law would put pressure on vulnerable people. people to end their lives.

“Indeed, the problems with end-of-life care, which have been detailed in numerous academic and official reports, have been explicitly recognized by our new health secretary and many other parliamentarians, who want to fix the system and not change the system. law. We agree with them.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has expressed his intention to vote against the bill, expressing concern that palliative care “is not effective enough to give people a real choice.”

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain last month: “I worry about the risk of people being forced down this path towards the end of their lives. »

Among the most prominent voices for change are Dame Esther Rantzen, who is terminally ill, while the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and actress and disability campaigner Liz Carr have voiced their opposition.

If the bill clears its first hurdle at the end of November, it will undergo line-by-line scrutiny in committee and further votes in the House of Commons before being sent to the Lords where the The process will start again, meaning any changes to the law will not be accepted. until next year at the earliest.

It is possible that MPs will vote against it on November 29, as they did the last time changes to the law were considered in 2015, preventing it from going further.

MPs will have a free vote in Parliament, deciding according to their conscience rather than along party lines.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously supported assisted dying but said the government would remain neutral on the issue.