It is the first major UK political party make the move.

At their spring conference in Southport in March, Liberal Democrat delegates passed a motion entitled "medically assisted dying".

The Guernsey4Dad (doctor-assisted dying) group claims most islanders support a change in the law.

Strict circumstances

Guernsey4Dad believes the current law is failing to protect patients and medical professionals and says doctors should be allowed to assist patients' deaths in some circumstances.

It hopes the stance taken by the Lib-Dems, which stated that doctors can only assist a terminally ill patient to end his or her life under strict circumstances, will add weight to its argument and help bring about reforms.

Deputy Pat Mellor, who spearheads the campaign, believes the majority of people want a change in the law.

She said: "Opinion polls have shown consistently over the last 10 to 15 years figures of about 80% supporting a change in the law.

"It doesn't matter how much people try and rubbish respected polls from respectable companies, you can't have those kind of figures consistently and reject them."

A working party set up by the States hopes is to report to the Advisory and Finance Committee on the issue later in the year.

However, while the Liberal Democrats backed proposals for medically assisted dying will become party policy, the measure is unlikely to appear in the party's manifesto and it will still be a matter of conscience for the Lib Dems 54 MPs in the UK House Of Commons.