Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has made an extraordinary U-turn by announcing he is backing legislation to allow terminally ill people to exercise their right to end their lives.
His support for Labour peer Lord Falconer's Bill, which will be debated in the House of Lords next week, goes against the Church of England's official line that the law on assisted suicide should not change.
Lord Falconer's Bill would allow adults to ask for help to die Writing in the Daily Mail, Lord Carey said it would not be "anti-Christian" to legalise assisted suicide and that by opposing reform the Church risked "promoting anguish and pain".
"The fact is that I have changed my mind," he wrote, adding: "The old philosophical certainties have collapsed in the face of the reality of needless suffering.
"Today we face a central paradox. In strictly observing the sanctity of life, the Church could now actually be promoting anguish and pain, the very opposite of a Christian message of hope."
Lord Carey's comments come as a surprise because he was part of a coalition that helped put a stop to Lord Joffe's Assisting Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill in 2006 in the House of Lords.
But while the former Archbishop has come out in favour of a change in the law, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, has condemned the Bill as "mistaken and dangerous".
Writing in the Times, Archbishop Welby warned the "deep personal demands" of individuals should not blind people to the pressures others could be put under should the practice become legal.
"It would be very naive to think that many of the elderly people who are abused and neglected each year, as well as many severely disabled individuals, would not be put under pressure to end their lives if assisted suicide were permitted by law," he wrote.
Assisted suicide is already legal at clinics like this in Switzerland Archbishop Welby said a law that permitted assisted suicide would "bound" to lead some people feeling they ought to stop "being a burden to others".
Under the 1961 Suicide Act, it remains a criminal offence carrying up to 14 years in jail to help take someone's life.
Despite the law, guidelines issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2000 made it clear that anyone who helped a loved one die while "out of compassion" would probably not be prosecuted.
If successful, Lord Falconer's Bill would allow mentally-capable adults in England and Wales to ask for help to die if they were suffering from a terminal illness and had less than six months to live.
Modelled on a system in place in the US state of Oregon, patients would be able to administer a fatal dose of drugs to themselves, but would not be able to be given help if they could not lift it or swallow it.
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