Life is sacred but we also have a “sacred duty” to show mercy to those who are suffering at the end of their lives, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has said.

       A decade ago, Lord Carey firmly opposed assisted dying and believed “killing in any form was wrong”.

       But he is now backing calls for law change to allow some people who are terminally ill to request medical assistance to die with dignity.

       The retired Anglican Bishop, 88, told the Daily Express he had “almost a conversion experience” after hearing harrowing stories of people who had suffered in their final days and weeks.

       He said: “One day I said to myself, ‘What’s the evidence that [assisted dying] is doing any wrong?’

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       “I started to look at the Bible and Christian theology and thought ‘there is nothing here that actually is relevant because it’s a modern question’.

       “That started me thinking very closely and wondering if I was on the right track.”

       Lord Carey gave the hypothetical example of a woman in her 70s who is suffering from excruciating pain due to terminal cancer.

       He said: “Life is sacred to that person too but what science should be doing is relieving their suffering. That is a sacred duty, to actually help people at the end of their lives.

       “Life is a gift but science, which has created the problem by helping us all to live longer, should be there to help us find ways of closing down suffering, helping people to die peacefully.”

       The Daily Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade calls for assisted dying to be legalised for terminally ill adults who are mentally sound and expected to die within six months.

       Over the last two years, dozens of campaigners with experience of horrific deaths - or fears that they will one day experience one - have shared their stories with the Express.

       The personal cases that influenced Lord Carey include that of Tony Nicklinson, a man with locked-in syndrome following a stroke.

       He lost a High Court case to allow doctors to end his life and died aged 58 after refusing food and water.

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       Lord Carey’s position is at odds with the Church of England, which remains opposed to assisted dying.

       In a submission to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee’s recent inquiry, the Church argued that law change could lead to a “slippery slope” where access is inevitably widened.

       It also warned that it would be “foolish” to think that elderly people would not be pressured into ending their lives prematurely.

       However, the inquiry discredited the slippery slope idea. It found countries which introduced assisted dying and based their eligibility criteria on terminal illness had not widened it to include cases where people suffering but not incurably ill.

       Lord Carey accused the Church and current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby of “using the fear motive”.

       He added: “They disagree very profoundly with me, certainly the Archbishop does. But I can cope with that because I do think that they are on the wrong side of history.

       “If you go to Oregon, which has been pioneering this in the US, all their fears will be shown to be quite baseless. It hasn’t led to a slippery slope, it has not led to abuse.

       “It has not led to the decline of palliative care. If anything, it has gone the other way.”

       Lord Carey, who was the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury between 1991 to 2002, described himself as a “deeply conservative Christian leader” who takes a traditional view on most matters.

       But he said: “On this I am quite liberal and believe it’s the right thing because it’s terrible for us to expect that really sick people pleading for mercy at the end of their lives are not given that by people who can help them.”

       The law in the UK has “failed really sick people”, Lord Carey added. He recalled an example of a woman he knew whose close friend begged for help to end her life.

       Sitting together on a garage floor, the woman tried to comfort her friend as she took an overdose of a drug she had found online.

       The woman later faced a traumatic police investigation, before then Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer said there was no case.

       Lord Carey said: “People used to say to Jesus, ‘have mercy upon us’. The Church, which is supposed to be the arm of Christ in the world today, is not listening to that cry for mercy.

       “We are taking a very hard, autocratic, doctrinal stand. I hope the Church will wake up to realise it needs to look at this again with compassion, look at the experience of people.

       “In a country like ours, we have law-makers who can make the law sufficiently strong to make it difficult for people to break the law.

       “What we must do is create strong laws that make it very difficult, if not impossible, for wicked people to get away with harming vulnerable loved ones.”

       Assisted dying will be in the political spotlight on Monday when MPs meet for a debate in Westminster Hall.

       The event was triggered by a Daily Express petition, backed by Dame Esther Rantzen and Dignity in Dying, which gathered more than 200,000 signatures.

       Lord Carey, a CofE priest for six decades, spoke passionately against assisted dying during a 2005 debate.

       But he is now firmly on the side of those fighting for legalisation, and praised Dame Esther for “raising her head above the parapet”.

       He added: “We’re always cautious, we Brits, we think about it really carefully. There is a thoroughness about our process, which is good, but a point has to come when we make a decision.

       “We have to create a strong law to defend the weak but we must also protect those who are pleading for a change in the law in order to give peace and compassion to those who are in terrible indignity and pain at the end of their lives.”

       A Church of England spokesperson said there were “real questions over the practicalities of protecting the vulnerable in a system of legalised assisted suicide”.

       They said there was “reason to fear” that vulnerable people would be placed under “new pressure, stress, anxiety and danger” if the law changed.

       The spokesperson added: “The Church of England believes that the very best care and support ought to be extended to all who are suffering and it has a record of strongly supporting palliative care, and in particular the hospice movement.

       “This is an agonising choice for those facing it but we believe that neither they nor very many other vulnerable people would be best served by a change in the current law on assisted suicide.

       “During its debate in 2022, the General Synod acknowledged the breadth and strength of feeling on this matter and heard many heartfelt testimonies.

       “Synod members voted to oppose a change in the law and also called for adequate funding and resourcing of palliative care services to ensure the highest possible standard of care for all.”