British author Terry Pratchett has called for a tribunal to be set up which would allow seriously ill patients to apply for help to die.
Sir Terry, who has Alzheimer's disease, is to set out his ideas in the Richard Dimbleby lecture, in which he will say that it would improve his life if he knew he could choose when to die.
The BBC reports he says he is ready to be a test case for a tribunal.
there are growing calls in Britain for the law to be changed to decriminalise assisted suicide.
A poll for the Panorama programme on BBC One suggests most people support assisted suicide for someone who is terminally ill.
More than 1000 people were surveyed for the poll: 73% of them believed that friends or relatives should be able to assist in the suicide of a loved one who is terminally ill.
The 1961 Suicide Act makes it an offence to aid, abet, counsel or procure a suicide or a suicide attempt in England and Wales. Anyone doing so could face a sentence of 14 years in prison.
