A TERMINALLY ill man with motor neurone disease has called for his right to die in dignity ahead of a High Court case to consider his request.
Noel Conway, 67, a retired college lecturer from Shropshire, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), in November 2014. The incurable condition means he cannot walk, relies increasingly on a ventilator to breathe and is not expected to live more than a year.
His request for doctors to be allowed to give him a lethal dose if his condition deteriorates is expected to be heard by the three judges over four days.
Conway claimed that he and his family felt unable to accept that he would be forced to “chose” between dying with MND – which may lead him to become completely paralysed and unable to communicate – and potential prosecution if he attempted to take his own life with assistance.
He said: “I have lived my entire life on my own terms, yet in the face of intolerable suffering and an inevitable death, I am denied a real say over how and when I will die. To have another choice – the option of an assisted death in this country – would provide me with great reassurance and comfort. In my eyes, the law simply must change.”
Assisted suicide – helping or encouraging another to kill themselves – is illegal under both English and Scottish law and any doctor who does so faces up to 14 years in prison.
His is the latest in a number of high profile cases brought before the courts by terminally ill people seeking the right to die. In 2015 the Scottish Parliament rejected an attempt to legalise assisted suicide following a vote in Holyrood.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “The current law is failing terminally ill people like Noel and thousands of others by denying them their dignity, stripping away their rights and freedoms and forcing them to choose between horrific scenarios most of us can hardly imagine. Dying people deserve better – they deserve to be listened to.”
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