A peer has introduced legislation aimed at legalising assisted suicide.

Lord Joel Joffe has published a private members bill on the rights of terminally ill patients who ask for help in ending their life prematurely.

Although the bill has little chance of becoming law, Lord Joffe hopes it may help keep the subject in the public eye following two recent high profile cases.

Joffe, a retired human rights lawyer who famously defended Nelson Mandela in his 1963 Rivonia trial, said that the recent cases of Diane Pretty and Reginald Crew "highlighted the pressing need to allow terminally ill competent adults greater choice in the manner of their death".

His bill proposes that a "competent adult" suffering from a terminal or serious incurable physical illness would need two doctors - with at least one being a consultant - to confirm their diagnosis.

Doctors would also have to make sure that all alternatives - including palliative and hospice care - had been considered.

The patient would then have to make a written declaration confirming that they wanted to die, witnessed by a solicitor who was satisfied the patient understood the decision's full implications.

The Patient Assisted Dying Bill has the support of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society but will not receive the government backing needed to give it the time to pass through parliament

Although controversial in its aims, Lord Joffe's bill offers several safeguards to "ensure the vulnerable in society are protected".

There is an opt-out clause for doctors who felt they could not help a patient for reasons of conscience.

And as an additional safeguard there would be a "waiting period" after the request to die, so that the patient could be given yet more thought to their decision.

"This issue has been debated at length in the media and every poll in the last decade shows over 80 per cent public support in favour of changing the law," Joffe said.

"The debate must now be brought into parliament."