I would like to congratulate the Liberal Democrats.

At its recent Spring conference in Southport it became the first political party in the UK to address the issue of assisted dying for the terminally ill.

From its informed debate it is clear that, despite legal prohibitions, evidence published in the Lancet suggests there are 18,000 medically assisted deaths in the UK each year without regulation or oversight to protect either patients or medical staff.

The current legislative framework governing medically assisted dying - primarily the 1961 Suicide Act - is over 40 years old and, since it was enacted, there have been huge advances in medical science and technology that have enabled individuals to live longer despite debilitating illness.

The world has changed beyond recognition since these laws were first introduced.

This is demonstrated by the successful medically-assisted dying legislation passed in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the US state of Oregon.

Meanwhile, in the UK, our cruel law forces many terminally ill patients either to suffer unbearably during the last few days of their lives or to undertake an arduous trip overseas to seek assistance to die.

Now Liberal Democrat members along with 80 per cent of the public recognise that the law in the UK does not work.

I hope my Member of Parliament will too.

-Graham Smith, Brighton