|PIC1|The Archbishop of Canterbury is expected to make a powerful appeal to peers in the House of Lords to firmly reject the introduction of any measures that would allow doctors to assist terminally-ill patients in dying through the prescription of lethal drugs.

Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill proposes measures that would allow doctors to prescribe drugs that a terminally-ill patient suffering terrible pain could take to end his or her own life.

Dr Rowan’s appeal spearheads the mounting pressure from doctors and religious groups as Lord Joffe’s Bill faces its second reading in the House of Lords Friday.

One of 81 speakers due to take part in the reading, Dr Williams is expected to warn that the proposals will take Britain into uncharted territory.

|AD|The results of a poll have been released to coincide with the controversial right-to-die bill that shows 76 per cent of 1,770 respondents in the YouGov survey for the Dignity in Dying group are in favour of a change in the law to allow the terminally ill to die.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has, however, united with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in the call for the Bill’s rejection.

In a joint letter the three spiritual heads warn: “Such a Bill cannot guarantee that a right to die would not, for society's most vulnerable, become a duty to die."

A poll taken by the Royal College of Physicians also showed that 73 per cent of its members are against any change in the law that would legalise physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.

The debate on the Bill will start at 10am, an hour earlier than usual, because so many speakers have lined up to take part in the debate.