However, the Royal College said that in the event of a vote in favour when the States of Guernsey debate an amended Requete on the subject this week, it “would be able to support local physicians to develop safeguards that would be acceptable to them and to support decision-making in this complex area.”

Meanwhile, the General Medical Council has said that if there is a specific proposal for how the law would operate in practice “we would be willing to have a further discussion on this.”

Deputy Lyndon Trott (pictured above), who is a signatory to the original Requete said this is a pleasing development on the eve of the debate: “We have always maintained that if the law changed, the medical profession would change its guidance. There is precedent for this with differing abortion laws across the British Isles.

"It is pleasing that the Royal College of Physicians has now confirmed that it would be able to support physicians to develop the necessary safeguards and the General Medical Council have recognised they too would need to develop new guidance. In February, the British Medical Journal called for doctors to be polled when they said ‘we need a large national and independent opinion poll, perhaps commissioned jointly by the BMA, the royal colleges, and the GMC. In the meantime, a neutral position from medical organisations would do most to promote an open and informed public debate."

Dr Dean Patterson, a cardiologist with the Medical Specialist Group said he is also delighted with this development, “As a local physician, I am delighted to learn that the Royal College of Physicians has now confirmed that they will be consulting their members in 2019 and also that they would be able to support local physicians to make develop safeguards and support the patient’s decision making. As our population ages, it is increasingly important that we enable patients to be able to make advance decisions. These will require the same controls and protocols as for assisted dying to ensure that the patient is giving informed consent and is not subject to undue pressure, much as we do already for patients who decide to cease treatment.”

Guernsey's former Health Minister Dr Hunter Adam, who is a retired Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist said the legal questions have also been answered; “Any legislation to allow assisted dying would include legal protection for health care professionals who do not wish to be involved in such decision making. There are established protocols enshrined in the Abortion Law and there is no reason why similar protocols cannot be used for Assisted Dying. When Guernsey was considering the legislation to allow abortion there were fears that its introduction would make it difficult to recruit and retain doctors. There is no evidence to suggest this happened. It is unlikely that recruitment or retention of health care professionals would prove difficult if appropriate legislation to allow Assisted Dying was in place.”However, given public support for assisted dying running at around 70%, based on UK polls and the Social Attitude Survey, it could mean that up to 30% of a GP’s patients may not agree with their doctor supporting assisted dying. No GP would accept such a loss of patients with equanimity; hence the current lack of open commitment by GPs in their support for greater end of life choice.