A terminally ill former lecturer has gone to court seeking permission to change the law so that he may be given assistance to die at home surrounded by his family.



Noel Conway, 67, from Shrewsbury, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in November 2014. His condition is incurable and he is not expected to live beyond 12 months.



Supported by the organisation Dignity in Dying, Conway has instructed the law firm Irwin Mitchell to seek permission for a judicial review in the high court of the ban on assisted dying, which, he says, prevents him ending his own life without protracted pain.



Assisted dying is prohibited by section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 and voluntary euthanasia is considered murder under English and Welsh law. Conway’s challenge is aimed at establishing criteria and safeguards for terminally ill adults to enable them to make their own decisions about ending their lives.

His legal challenge differs from the most recent, unsuccessful, right-to-die claim brought on behalf of Tony Nicklinson. Conway, unlike Nicklinson, has been diagnosed as terminally ill.

The supreme court in Nicklinson ultimately ruled that it was for parliament, not the courts, to change the law on assisted dying.

Conway, who is in a wheelchair and wears an oxygen mask to help his breathing, was in the high court to hear the claim.

His main aim is to be allowed to spend as much time of the time remaining to him with his family and, ideally, at home.

Before going into court, he told the Guardian: “If I decided I was going to [an assisted dying clinic in] Switzerland, I would have had to have gone by now. That would have deprived me of much more important and valued time with my family. At the moment, the quality of life and experience is sufficiently positive for me to want to continue.

“But I’m not naive and I know full well it’s only a question of time. Who knows how long before it tips the other way? Then I want to be in a position to say that’s it. I would rather do it in this country and in my own home. I think that is my right and should be everyone’s right.

“I have had a huge amount of support from both the young and the elderly. I was in a hospice recently and a 97-year-old leaned across from a neighbouring bed and told me: ‘I 100% support you, Noel. What you are doing is fabulous.’”



Opening his argument in the high court, Richard Gordon QC, for Conway, said that if parliament did not deal satisfactorily with the issue of assisted dying then the courts must look at fresh evidence.

The last time parliament debated a private member’s bill on assisted dying, Gordon said, it only gave four hours to the issue. Parliament had not moved an inch, he said, yet “one can see the way society is moving”.

Sarah Wootton, the chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “Like Noel, we firmly believe that those who are terminally ill should be able to control and manage their final weeks and months of life humanely and with dignity.

“People should have the right, when dying, to die well and that simply is not happening under the current law. Instead of being shown compassion and kindness when they need it most, parliament has turned its back on dying people by upholding the current blanket ban on assisted dying.

James Strachan QC, for the Ministry of Justice, opposed the application for the courts to consider the case. “There is an absence of any material change to circumstances to justify revisiting these issues at this stage,” he said. “Parliament has continued to give this matter active consideration. We don’t see that there is any fresh or significant evidence.”

A private member’s bill introduced by Lord Falconer to legalise assisted dying ran out of time in the House of Lords in 2015.

A spokesman for the Care Not Killing Alliance said: “Changing the law on assisted suicide and euthanasia is opposed by every major disability rights organisation and doctors’ group, including the BMA, Royal College of GPs and the Association for Palliative Medicine.

“It has been rejected by successive judges. Just a couple of years ago, three of Britain’s top judges – the lord chief justice, Lord Judge; the master of the rolls, Lord Dyson; and Lord Justice Elias – confirmed the blanket prohibition on assisted suicide in the UK is not contrary to article 8 of the European convention on human rights and that changing the laws on murder and suicide are matters for parliament alone, which has repeatedly rejected changing the law.



“The current law exists to protect those who are sick, elderly, depressed, or disabled from feeling obliged to end their lives. It protects those who have no voice against exploitation and coercion. It acts as a powerful deterrent to would-be abusers and does not need changing.”

Conway’s lawyers are seeking permission for a full hearing. The judges reserved their decision.