He expressed his views after new guidance was issued in England yesterday to clarify where prosecutions would be undertaken in such situations - and where it would not be appropriate.

Independent MSP Margo MacDonald is currently consulting on Bill that would change the law in Scotland to make it legal to help someone bring about their own death.

She asked Mr Salmond during First Minister`s Questions today if accepted that the issue should be dealt with in Parliament - and if he would back a free vote on the issue.

The First Minister said he accepted it was “properly a matter” for MSPs at Holyrood.

But he added: “I have to say to Margo MacDonald, as she well knows, on a personal level, I am not convinced by the arguments she has put forward.”

Mr Salmond added there was no offence of assisted suicide in Scotland and the country’s head prosecutor, the Lord Advocate, would not be issuing guidance similar to that south of the Border.

However, Scots in this situation could find themselves prosecuted under culpable homicide.

More than 100 Britons have ended their lives at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland but in England, until yesterday, friends or relatives who accompany them have not known if they would face prosecution.

The guidance came about after Debbie Purdy, from Undercliffe, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, who wanted to know what would happen to her Cuban husband, Omar Puente, if he helped her travel abroad to end her life, took her case to the law lords.