Robert Jenrick has called on Sir Keir Starmer to block a bill that proposes changing the law to legalise assisted dying.
All four Conservative leadership candidates have expressed concern after a Private Member’s Bill tabled by Kim Leadbeater, a Labour MP, was selected for debate next week.
Ms Leadbeater’s decision to propose a law change – which would decriminalise the practice for the terminally ill – means there could be a Commons vote before Christmas.
Sir Keir has promised to allow his party to vote with their conscience and last week said he was “very pleased” that MPs would get the chance to have a say on the issue.
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Campaigners for assisted dying argue it would reduce suffering and increase personal dignity in death.
But urging the Prime Minister to ensure the legislation does not progress, Mr Jenrick said: “There is almost no issue as sensitive and potentially risky as the legalisation of assisted suicide.
“In Canada, where a law was rushed through, patients are being pushed into medical assistance in death in order to unclog hospital beds.
“In Oregon, patients with anorexia are being offered the chance to end their own lives. In Europe, both children and the mentally ill are being euthanised.”
Mr Jenrick noted a report in The Telegraph that revealed dozens of Labour MPs were understood to back proposals for the legislation to be extended beyond the terminally ill.
He added: “ We must never allow vulnerable patients to be pushed into an assisted death. This rush to legislate poses a serious risk of thousands of lonely and elderly patients being forced into deaths before their time.
“There is no justification for such a rapid attempt to upend the law.
“Starmer needs to pull this bill immediately and – in its place – conduct a full consultation to develop a proposal that would not endanger the lives of the elderly and vulnerable.”
Mr Jenrick’s concerns about the move to legalise assisted dying have been echoed by his leadership rivals James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat in recent weeks.
A spokesman for Mr Cleverly said: “James voted against assisted dying before and still maintains that position.”
When asked at last week’s Conservative Party conference where she stood on the issue, Mrs Badenoch said: “On assisted suicide, personally I am sympathetic to assisted suicide but I know how government works.
“I have seen it from the inside. I do not trust any government or civil service to be able to deliver this.”
On being asked the same question, Mr Tugendhat said: “We need to be championing freedom. It is quite literally the building block of our society. If we don’t have that, we have nothing.
“My job is also to make sure that we support the most vulnerable, and that’s why I’m deeply, deeply, deeply uncomfortable with this assisted dying.”
Mr Tugendhat said he saw reports from Canada including a military veteran who was told the care he needed would be neither effective nor available, before assisted dying was suggested to him as a “cheaper” alternative.
Asked if this meant he would oppose assisted dying in a Commons vote, the shadow security minister replied: “Look, I never say never because I need to read the bill, but I think it’s immensely unlikely that I could support it.”
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, suggested last month that the state of end-of-life care in Britain meant the country was not yet ready for assisted dying.
He has previously supported an “in principle” debate on the ethical question but said he remained “conflicted” on the issue.
The campaign to legalise assisted dying has been given greater prominence by Dame Esther Rantzen, the former television presenter who is suffering from terminal lung cancer.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week, Ms Rantzen said that just as people can choose whether or not to have a baby, she should be allowed to choose when she dies.