The Court of Appeal has today rejected the judicial review of Noel Conway who is seeking the right to have his life ended with medical assistance.
Conway, who has motor neurone disease, began his legal battle last year when he claimed that the 1961 Suicide Act condemned him to an undignified death.
Following the rejection of his case from the High Court in May, Conway had sought to challenge this decision, proposing a new legal framework to replace the blanket ban on assisted dying. He said that he now intends to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Whilst Conway stated that he was ‘disappointed’ by the decision, his legal team along with campaign group Dignity in Dying said that they were pleased with some points made in Court of Appeal judgment. They drew on the previous decision from the High Court, which ruled that the courts do possess the authority to make a declaration of incompatibility between human rights legislation and Section 2(1) of the Suicide Act, which prohibits assisted suicide.
Also commenting was Conway’s solicitor and Irwin Mitchell partner, Yogi Amin, who said: ‘There was a range of evidence before the court which addressed the safeguards that are available to provide an alternative to a blanket ban on assisted dying.
‘Noel would like the choice to be able to die with dignity. He has proposed a new legal framework for terminally ill people with robust safeguards. This would be in place of the current blanket ban on assisted dying. The world has changed phenomenally in the past few decades, with many medical advances, but the law on assisted dying for those who are terminally ill hasn’t changed for more than 50 years.’
