Yahoo News Man terminally ill with motor neurone disease loses court bid to change law on assisted dying
A man with terminal motor neurone disease has lost his bid to bring a High Court challenge against the law on assisted dying.
Noel Conway, 67, wanted permission to bring a judicial review which could result in terminally ill adults who meet strict criteria making their own decisions about ending their lives.
The retired college lecturer, from Shrewsbury, was diagnosed in November 2014 and is not expected to live beyond the next 12 months.
His counsel, Richard Gordon QC, said that when he had less than six months to live and while he retained the mental capacity to make the decision "he would wish to be able to enlist assistance to bring about a peaceful and dignified death".
Mr Conway was seeking a declaration that the Suicide Act 1961 is incompatible with Article 8, which relates to respect for private and family life, and Article 14, which protects from discrimination.
He was not in court in London on Thursday to hear Lord Justice Burnett and Mr Justice Jay rule that he did not have an arguable case to go forward.
Counsel said he wished to die in the country where he was born and lived for his whole adult life.
At a hearing last week his lawyer said: "The choices facing him therefore are stark: to seek to bring about his own death now whilst he is physically able to do but before he is ready; or await death with no control over when and how it comes."
Mr Conway contended that these choices, forced upon him by the provisions of the criminal law, violated his human rights.
