Court of Appeal dismisses assisted suicide case

Judges at the Court of Appeal this morning dismissed the case of 68 year old motor-neurone patient Noel Conway from Shrewsbury, who wanted to be helped to die. The retired lecturer challenged an earlier High Court rejection of his case at a hearing in May.

His case was rejected by three senior judges - Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton, Sir Brian Leveson and Lady Justice King.

Mr Conway, said he now intends to take his fight to the Supreme Court. He is dependent on a ventilator for up to 23 hours a day and only has movement in his right hand, head and neck. He told the court he felt entombed by the disease. He said he wanted help to die when he has less than six months left to live, still has the mental capacity to decide, and has made a "voluntary, clear, settled and informed" decision.

He said his only current options now are to "effectively suffocate" by removing his ventilator, or spend thousands travelling to Switzerland to end his life and have his family risk prosecution. He described this situation as "barbaric"

Sir Terence said the court concluded it was not as well-placed as Parliament to determine the "necessity and proportionality of a blanket ban". He also said the High Court had seen evidence Mr Conway's proposed scheme was "inadequate to protect the weak and vulnerable". It also failed to give enough weight to the "sanctity of life and to the scheme's potential to undermine trust and confidence as between doctors and patients", he added.

Dr Peter Saunders, campaign director of Care Not Killing, said the Court of Appeal's decision was "sensible". He added: The safest law is the one we already have - a complete ban on assisted suicide and euthanasia."

The Chief Executive of CARE, Nola Leach, said: "We welcome this decision today and the fact that the current law on assisted suicide has been so clearly upheld.

"We recognise how painful and deeply sensitive these issues are. But far from being broken, the current blanket ban on assisted suicide protects the most vulnerable and weak in our society. They would be most at risk from exploitation or coercion were the law changed.

"Since 2003, there have been over ten attempts to introduce assisted suicide across the parliaments of the United Kingdom and all of them have been rightly rejected.

"The last attempt in 2015 was overwhelmingly defeated by 330 votes to 118 after a strong and impassioned debate.

"Simply put, there is no way any assisted suicide legislation could be kept safe from abuse or negligence.

"The evidence tells us that if you open the door to assisted suicide, it's a real slippery slope - just look at Canada where there's been a 30 per cent increase in assisted suicides in the last six months alone.

"It is far better to care for the most vulnerable, rather than creating a culture of pressure where the right to die quickly becomes a duty to die."