Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier's views on assisted dying

This has always been an emotive issue and it came due to 200,000 people signing the petition set up by Dame Esther Rantzen on the No10 website.

To be clear, this was never going to be a debate with a vote to enact this in law.

David Cameron first introduced the idea of popular-led debating subjects back in 2010 decided by the No10 petition.

I led one a year or two back on dodgy builders.

This was an unusually well-attended debate in the smaller debating chamber Westminster Hall.

Dame Esther has terminal lung cancer and been leading recent calls for assisted dying to be introduced into the UK.

Indeed, the UK is relatively slow in this area.

Several EU countries have introduced it and people will be familiar with the pioneers of this — the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland.

To be clear, I am, in principle, in favour of this.

I am 61 years old and, as one gets older, we see death more frequently.

Indeed, it almost becomes commonplace.

My mother died over a decade ago from pancreatic cancer.

There was no cure and she was 86 years old.

Yet she received help to allow her to die a painless but undignified death in a way that could have dragged on for months.

She, I knew, was keen to end it quickly.

More recently, someone I knew had a similar condition.

She was in Spain and she and her husband discussed assisted dying.

She was counselled and helped on her way in a manner that her widower claimed was thoughtful, efficient and dignified.

Having heard his story, I was convinced that this was what my mother had wanted.

This is a very complicated area.

Normally, this type of change of law — one of conscience — comes from a private members' bill.

This was the case with legalising abortion, for example.

But my colleague David Davis suggested that this type of law change needs more than just a short bill.

It needs a lot of thought about safeguards and I agree wholeheartedly with him.

Dame Esther was interviewed in the morning of the debate.

She made an important point.

We would not let one of the creatures we love the most — our family pet — die in pain.

Now is, I feel, the right time to have a proper debate.