Joel Joffe, the cross bench peer who introduced a parliamentary bill on assisted dying last year, announced this week that he intends to modify his original proposals on the role of doctors in helping the terminally ill to die.

During a debate on the issue in the House of Lords on Monday, Lord Joffe announced a number of amendments to his initial Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill that would allow doctors to prescribe drugs to patients who wish to use them to die, but not to administer them.

The debate, featuring more than 70 speakers, centred on a report produced in April by the House of Lords select committee that considered the issues raised by Lord Joffe's original bill, which ran out of parliamentary time before it could …