‘Change law on suicide or I face a living hell’

A retired lecturer has begun a legal challenge for the right to die, saying he is facing a “living hell”.

Noel Conway, 67, is suffering from motor neurone disease and has less than a year to live.

His case was heard by the High Court yesterday, the start of a challenge to the Suicide Act that is expected to last for four or five days.

Mr Conway, from Shrewsbury, told the BBC: “I will be quadriplegic. I could be virtually catatonic and conceivably be in a locked-in syndrome – that to me would be a living hell. That prospect is one I cannot accept.”

He wants a declaration that the Suicide Act 1961 is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.