Former prime minister Lord David Cameron has backed the move to legalise assisted dying for terminally-ill adults after previously opposing the legislation.
The Private Member’s Bill is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday, in the first debate and vote of its kind in the House since 2015.
MPs will be given a free vote on the issue, allowing them to decide according to their conscience rather than in line with party policy.
The Bill, which covers England and Wales, says that only terminally ill adults with less than six months left to live and a settled wish to die would be eligible.
Writing about the assisted dying bill in The Times, Lord Cameron said: “As campaigners have convincingly argued, this proposal is not about ending life, it is about shortening death.”
Previously his main concern had been that “vulnerable people could be pressured into hastening their own deaths”, but he said he believed the current proposal contained “sufficient safeguards” to prevent this.
Lord Cameron – who opposed previous moves to legalise assisted dying – added: “Will this law lead to a meaningful reduction in human suffering?
“I find it very hard to argue that the answer to this question is anything other than ‘yes’.”
He continued: “If this Bill makes it to the House of Lords, I will be voting for it.”
It comes as the Labour MP behind the motion, Kim Leadbeater, insisted the Bill is taking “absolutely the right route” through Parliament after it was criticised as an “utterly inadequate” way to deal with the controversial issue.
She defended the level of scrutiny her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will get after a group of MPs mounted a bid to halt the plans going through the Commons.
Ms Leadbeater said the debate on assisted dying generally “has been going on for decades”, and she believes “this Bill will receive more scrutiny and more discussion and more debate, probably, than any piece of legislation”.
Meanwhile, former prime ministers Gordon Brown, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Baroness Theresa May have come out against the bill.
Writing for The Independent, Dr Liam Fox, former shadow health secretary and a practising doctor, also voiced his opposition to the bill warning that it could turn the National Health Service into “a national death service”.
Also on Wednesday, former president of the supreme court, David Neuberger, declared his support for the law change, according to the Guardian.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has declined to say which way he will vote, adding that he does not want to pressure other MPs.
The Cabinet is split over the issue, with more members believed to be in favour than against.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn, transport secretary Louise Haigh and energy secretary Ed Miliband have all said they will back the law.
Meanwhile, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, health secretary Wes Streeting, education secretary Bridget Phillipson and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds have said they will reject the legislation.
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