As the Observer reveals today, thousands of very ill patients in Britain are helped to die each year by their doctors. Sometimes the fatal doses of morphine are administered with their knowledge, sometimes only with the knowledge of their families who don't want to see them suffer further. It is all done on the quiet because such an action can lead to the doctor being on a murder charge. Politicians naturally shy away from entering this emotive arena. The very term 'mercy killing' conjures up images of doctors administering lethal injections to comatose patients. There is also the very real concern that any legislation would put elderly people under pressure to agree to an assisted death to help their relatives.

But the law currently proposed by Lord Joffe, and being debated in the House of Lords, sets out a framework which would comprehensively outlaw such cases. His proposal is that only patients who are terminally ill and judged to have less than six months to live would be eligible for an assisted death. They would have to be in 'unbearable pain', be capable of making a rational decision about their future and would have to undergo both a medical and psychological examination. There would also be a 'cooling-off' period so that they could contemplate the process they had been through.

Polls show that both the public and the medical profession support reform of the law on assisted death. It is a basic desire to want our end to be as peaceful, dignified and pain-free as possible. The thousands of people with terminal illnesses have little hope of this at the moment. They need ministers to have the courage to look for a path which will cut through the ethical and legal complexities. If it is possible on abortion and cloning, it must also be possible to frame legislation that allows the dying the right to a dignified departure.