With reference to Michelle Donelan’s column in last week’s Wiltshire Times on assisted dying, I am glad that she is going to listen to other people’s views before a possible vote in Parliament in September. But despite this she says she will never support it. I think she should give greater weight to the views of her constituents before making up her mind.

Michelle says that she has had many communications both for and against assisted dying. But recent research shows that there is a large majority in favour – 82% of the public support a change in the law on assisted dying for terminally ill adults. So most of the population are in favour of some form of assisted dying.

Michele says that, as a Christian, she believes that it is not for human beings to decide when someone dies. But with the interventions of modern medicine we already do that on a daily basis. So why should this intervention be illegal when so many others are accepted.

When assisted dying was last debated in Parliament the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey announced that he had changed his mind on the matter and now supported the idea of assisted dying. Archbishop Desmond Tutu also supports it, saying that a dignified death is our right and he does not want his life to be prolonged artificially. So Christians have differing views on the subject and many accept that some intervention is compassionate. In fact 79% of religious people do support the idea of assisted dying.

As an MP you can decide that it is not for you personally, but let those who do wish to avoid the terrible last days of a terminal illness be allowed to do so. With appropriate safeguards this law could operate safely and humanely.

Countries like The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and various states in the USA, who have already adopted some form of assisted dying with strong safeguards, have found that that it works very well. Just knowing that you can have an assisted death, if you need it in the end, gives people great comfort and solace. Having sympathy for people dying an awful death and for their relatives does not do anything to help their situation, but helping to change the law would allow a dignified end of life to many people now and in the future.

Maureen Wood, Rickfield, Bradford on Avon.