LORD Knight of Weymouth has spoken out in support of assisted dying.

In a blog post on his website, the former South Dorset MP Jim Knight said: “It seems we are happy to “play God” in preserving life, we “play God” when we put animals out of their misery, and in my irreligious state I don’t see the logic which says assisted dying is any different.”

In the piece Lord Knight spoke about his father, who had cancer on several occasions in his lifetime and had been wrongly given a terminal prognosis.

He said: “Over thirty years before he died he was given a 50:50 chance of survival, and the same ten years later. I am therefore cautious about how we define terminal illness.

“I have been deeply moved by those who also were given a few months, were very depressed, but are now still alive and enjoying a quality of life. With this bill some of those people may have felt too much of a burden and been helped to die,” he added.

The Assisted Dying Bill went through the second reading stage this week in the House of Lords, where many peers gave personal speeches supporting or disagreeing with the proposed legislation.

Lord Knight said he wants to see ‘close scrutiny’ of the bill to ‘ensure we learn from international experience and get the best safeguards in place that we can’, carefully balancing the safeguarding of vulnerable adults with the needs of individuals facing ‘tragic circumstances’.

If Parliament passes the Assisted Dying Bill into law, doctors could legally prescribe a lethal amount of drugs to patients who are estimated to have less than six months to live.

The House of Lords did not vote on the bill at second reading this week, so proposals will now pass to the House of Lords committee to be discussed later this year.

If successful in passing this stage, it will be submitted to the House of Commons, though this may not be for some time.

Lord Knight’s full blog post can be viewed on jimknight.uk