MSP and Parkinson's sufferer Margo MacDonald has confirmed that she has initiated a bill in Parliament to legislate for patients' right to die in limited terminal cases.

In a letter to the Firm published this month, MacDonald confims that she is launching a Member's Bill "as this is the surest, and possibly the only way to organise a debate and public consultation on the issue."

MacDonald had previously expressed her frustration to the Firm that the Parliamantary process did not allow a public consultation to take place -as she wished- before a bill was launched.

Mrs MacDonald has seprately told the BBC that politicians have a duty to investigate the issue, prompted by the level of public interest in the issue, which she says impacts on so may people and their families.

"I was convinced the Dutch way was preferable by far to the trek to Switzerland undertaken by an estimated 100-plus UK citizens who would have jeopardised the legal position of anyone giving them assistance," she says.

"This is where the Dutch experience is very valuable to me. One of the things they stressed was that before a patient would ask a physician to help them exercise their choice, the physician had to have a proper knowledge of that patient,"

"They had to have a relationship that stretched back over years rather than weeks - you couldn't walk in off the street and ask a doctor: will you help me end my life?"

"I can see difficulties, I can see anomalies. That's a very, very sensitive area as to how you deal with someone whose mental capacity is affected."