Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned against a new assisted suicide law at Westminster.

Writing for The Times, he said that legalising assisted suicide would be a 'slippery slope'.

He also said lawmakers had a duty to ask a prior question which is whether by enhancing existing forms of care, end of life treatment can be improved.

He says:

Proponents of assisted suicide often focus on the 'safeguards' in the proposed Bill.

But Mr Brown said that he feared the Assisted Dying Bill could 'lead to a slippery slope and that over time legislators would be unable to resist the erosion of the safeguards against the taking of life.

On 22 October, Members of the House of Lords will consider the proposed Assisted Dying Bill at second reading.

This is where all Peers can debate the general principles of the legislation.

The Bill has been introduced by Baroness Meacher who is the Chair of Dignity in Dying, formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.

It aims to change the law in England and Wales to allow terminally ill adults with six months or less to live the option of an assisted suicide.

CARE has always campaigned for greater availability of palliative care and against the legalisation of assisted suicide.