Like many people in this area, I have always been a strong supporter of the hospice movement, both financially and practically.

I was amazed, therefore, to read that the Association of Palliative Medicine - to which many hospices belong - has opposed Baroness Knight's Patient Protection Bill, which is due for consideration in committee on June 25.

As the Patient Protection Bill simply makes it unlawful to withdraw or withhold sustenance with the intention of hastening or causing death, I cannot see the reason for such opposition; it appears to run counter to all the hospice movement stands for.

Can anyone explain this action on behalf of an organisation which appears to be against non-voluntary euthanasia - cases of which, according to figures quoted in the House of Lords recently, are estimated at thousands each year.

When Lord Joffe's Patients (Assisted Dying) Bill - which would legalise both assisted suicide and euthanasia - is given a second reading, how will the hospice movement argue against it if it has not already supported the patient's right to fluid and nutrition at the end of life?

Wake up England - you're a long time dead.

-Maureen A Stack, Shoreham-by-Sea