GPs are expected to vote later this month in favour of lowering the upper limit on abortion, increasing pressure on the government to change the law.

The British Medical Association (BMA) will debate at its annual conference whether it should change its policy on abortion for the first time since 1989.

Four separate groups of doctors have submitted motions calling for the upper abortion limit to be lowered from 24 weeks, given that premature babies born as young as 22 weeks can now survive.

One motion suggests a limit of 20 weeks. If the motion is passed, it would become BMA policy to lobby the government for a change.

One section of the association, the junior members forum, which represents younger doctors, has already voted for lowering the limit.

More than 500 representatives vote at the BMA annual meeting and a large number are expected to back the calls for lowering the limit.

The association will also hear a motion calling on it to drop its longstanding opposition to doctors helping terminally ill patients kill themselves. Four branches of the BMA have put forward motions calling for doctors to help with assisted suicides.

The BMA’s Oxford division proposes that the association no longer stands in the way of a proposed law that would allow patients over 18 who were terminally ill and suffering unbearably to seek medical help to end their lives.

A growing number of GPs are asking for the right to help patients end their lives with dignity. Doctors argue there is a fundamental difference between euthanasia — in which the doctor ends the patient’s life — and assisted suicides, when the doctor provides the means for the patient to do it themselves.

Anyone assisting a suicide currently faces 14 years in jail and some Britons have gone to clinics in Switzerland to seek help in ending their lives.

Not all medical bodies support a change. In April, the Royal College of Nursing resisted calls at its conference for a similar move.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Swine flu vaccine for all as drug rushed through
• Artificial sperm and the race to build a baby
• BBC jets out stars to tout for prizes