Motor neurone disease sufferer has Supreme Court bid denied

Terminally-ill motor neurone disease sufferer says Supreme Court decision is ‘downright cruel’ as he loses his last chance to overturn law which stops anyone from helping him die

  • Noel Conway’s legal challenge against a ban on assisted dying is unsuccessful 
  • He wants the right to die without having to undergo a ‘distressing’ death 
  • The motor neurone disease sufferer has to use a ventilator for 23 hours a day 
  • Supreme Court denied his appeal against an earlier ruling, dubbed ‘barbaric’

A terminally-ill motor neurone disease sufferer who wants ‘a peaceful and dignified death’ has been refused permission for an appeal over the law on assisted dying.

Supreme Court justices rejected a bid by Noel Conway to appeal against an earlier ruling in his battle against legislation which prevents him from being helped to die.

The 68-year-old, from Shrewsbury, says that being forced to choose between ‘unacceptable options’ to end his life is ‘barbaric’.

Justices rejected a bid by Noel Conway to appeal against an earlier ruling in his fight over current legislation which prevents him from being helped to die. The 68-year-old, from Shrewsbury, says that being forced to choose between ‘unacceptable options’ to end his life is ‘barbaric’

He wants help to die – which the law prevents – when he has less than six months left to live, still has the mental capacity to make the decision and has made a ‘voluntary, clear, settled and informed’ decision.  

Mr Conway lost a Court of Appeal challenge in June against an earlier High Court rejection of his case that the ‘blanket ban’ on assisted dying was an unjustified interference with his human rights.


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He sought to challenge that at the Supreme Court and justices took the unusual step of considering his case at a hearing last week.

During that hearing, Mr Conway’s lawyers told the court the retired lecturer does not accept that withdrawal of his ‘non-invasive ventilation’ (NIV), which he needs 23 hours a day, would be an acceptable way for him to end his life.

But Lady Hale, Lord Reed and Lord Kerr declined permission for an appeal.

Giving reasons for their decision in a joint statement, they said: ‘No-one doubts that the issue is of transcendent public importance.

‘It touches us all. We all have to experience the death of people about whom we care. We all have to contemplate our own death.’

The justices added: ‘Ultimately the question for this panel is whether the prospects of Mr Conway’s succeeding in his claim before this court are sufficient to justify our giving him permission to pursue it, with all that that would entail for him, for his family, for those on all sides of this multi-faceted debate, for the general public and for this court.

‘Not without some reluctance, it has been concluded that in this case those prospects are not sufficient to justify giving permission to appeal.’

Mr Conway, pictured here in April 2018 with his wife Carol, suffers from motor neurone disease and has to use a ventilator for 23 hours a day

In a statement, Mr Conway said: ‘Today’s decision is extremely disappointing.

‘It means that I will not be able to have my arguments heard by the highest court in the land. Dying people like me cannot wait years for another case to be heard.

‘I am particularly disappointed that the courts have instead listened to the arguments of doctors who have never met me but think they know best about the end of my life.

‘I have no choice over whether I die; my illness means I will die anyway. The only option I currently have is to remove my ventilator and effectively suffocate to death under sedation.

‘To me this is not acceptable, and for many other dying people this choice is not available at all.’

Mr Conway with wife Carol and local supporters outside Telford County Court, Shropshire, May 1, 2018

Mr Conway added: ‘All I want is the option to die peacefully, with dignity, on my own terms, and I know that the majority of the public are behind me.

‘It is downright cruel to continue to deny me and other terminally-ill people this right.

‘This is the end of the road for my case, so we must now turn our attention back to Parliament.

‘I hope that MPs will listen to the vast majority of their constituents and give people like me a say over our deaths.’ 

Mr Conway, who is supported by the campaign group Dignity In Dying, was too unwell to travel to London for the Supreme Court hearing.

He is now dependent on a ventilator for up to 23 hours a day and only has movement in his right hand, head and neck.

Mr Conway at an earlier court appearance with wife Carol (left), stepson Terry McCusker (centre back) and Sarah Wootton, CEO of Dignity in Dying (right) in March 2017

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which supported Mr Conway’s case, said: ‘This decision is a grave injustice for dying people across the country who want to have a say in how and when they die.

‘Despite the Supreme Court saying in 2014 that the current law on assisted dying could be in breach of dying people’s human rights, MPs failed to address these issues in 2015.

‘After opening the door with its judgment in the Nicklinson case, the Supreme Court has declined to follow through, which will come as a bitter blow to those who want control over the manner and timing of their deaths.’

Ms Wootton added: ‘We will now turn our attention back to Parliament and demonstrate to our MPs the strength of feeling on assisted dying.

‘Last time around, MPs failed in their duty to represent the views of their constituents.

‘Next time, we hope they will stand up for a safer, more compassionate law that benefits dying people.’

In an interview with Sky News earlier this year, he told how when he was diagnosed he said he ‘felt like a condemned man awaiting execution on a date yet to be determined.’

He said: ‘I became aware of how agonising it must be to be someone on death row for years and years not knowing when the order will come.’

He told Sky News: ‘As my condition has continued to deteriorate and I have become more aware of what will happen, I have become increasingly focused on end-of-life concerns and what options are (or aren’t) available to me.’

‘Absurdly, the only way terminally ill people can extend our end-of-life choices is, where it is practicable, to take our own life alone at home, or rely on a loved one to help us at the end by accompanying us, if we have the means, to travel to Switzerland.’

He told the broadcaster the other option ‘would give me the opportunity, in my final months, to decide when the time is right for me to go and to leave this world swiftly and with dignity.’

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