Overwhelming public support for a change in the law to allow medically assisted suicide is revealed in a poll for The Times.

Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of people want doctors to be allowed to help terminally ill patients to end their lives. Support is particularly strong among those aged 55 to 64.

Six out of ten people also want friends and relatives to be able to help their dying loved ones to commit suicide without fear of prosecution.

Changing the law has always been opposed strongly by doctors, with two out of three against legalisation. But yesterday saw the first sign of change in the medical establishment.

The Royal College of Nursing dropped its opposition to assisted suicide and adopted a “neutral” position after a three-month consultation with members. Nurses will receive new guidance on how patients can deal with terminal illness. Many nurses are being asked by desperate patients about travelling abroad to clinics such as Dignitas, in Zurich, to end their lives and are unsure what they can say.

The Times poll, by Populus, was carried out a week after the leading conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife died at the Dignitas clinic on July 10. Sir Edward, 85, had become virtually blind and suffered loss of hearing while Lady Downes, 74, a former ballet dancer, had terminal cancer. Their son and daughter accompanied them to the clinic and have been questioned by police, although they are unlikely to face further action.

Under current law it is illegal to aide or abet anyone to commit suicide, although no one has been prosecuted for doing so. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the former Lord Chancellor, has described the current situation, in which the law remains in force but prosecutors have declined to press charges, as “a legal no man’s land”.

The law may be clarified next week when the House of Lords rules on the Debbie Purdy case. Ms Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis, is seeking a guarantee that her husband will not be prosecuted if he helps her to travel to Dignitas.

The poll found only 13 per cent of the public supported a blanket right to assisted suicide regardless of the individual’s health. Eighty-five per cent said that it should only be legal “in specific circumstances”.

Sarah Wootton, of Dignity in Dying, said the poll showed that the law was out of step with public opinion and highlighted two issues. “Firstly, the public distinguish between assisted dying for the terminally ill and the assisted suicide of people who are not dying. Secondly, the public want safeguards to define who should and shouldn’t be assisted to die.”

A spokesman for the Care not Killing Alliance dismissed the findings. “Knee-jerk approval of assisted suicide from the worried well is not surprising in this poll, carefully timed immediately to follow the media storm around recent high-profile celebrity suicides,” he said. “It needs to be seen within the context of the House of Lords’ recent rejection of [a legal change] and the continuing strong opposition to any change in the law from senior lawyers, leading doctors, the BMA and disabled people’s groups, all of whom have a good understanding of the dangers to public safety that would accompany any change.”

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