The Health Secretary has warned that legalising assisted dying could take NHS money away from medical treatment for the living.
Wes Streeting, who opposed the suicide law change passed by MPs last week, said getting the system up and running would take 'time and money' away from other parts of the health service.
He said that said better end-of-life care was needed to prevent terminally ill people feeling they had no alternative but to end their own life.
MPs on Friday voted by a majority of just 23 to allow medical professionals to help people die, under a system expected to start operating by the end of the decade.
But having been passed by the Commons the legislation faces a tricky passage through the Lords, which calls for them to either make major changes or block it altogether.
