Ill man takes assisted dying case to court

A MAN with terminal motor neurone disease has gone to the High Court to challenge the law on assisted dying.

This week lawyers for retired college lecturer Noel Conway, who was diagnosed in November 2014 and is not expected to live beyond the next 12 months, said his case was “intensely personal and of the utmost importance”.

Mr Conway, 67, from Shrewsbury, attended court in a wheelchair and on a ventilator to hear his case put to three judges.He seeks a judicial review which could result in terminally ill adults who meet strict criteria making their own decisions about ending their lives.

Richard Gordon QC said: “Mr Conway wishes to die in the country in which he was born and has lived for his whole adult life.

“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 contends these choices, forced upon him by the provisions of the criminal law, violated his human rights.