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| Noel Conway |
By Dr. Peter Saunders
National Right to Life
Editor’s note. Dr. Saunders is a former general surgeon and CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organization with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members.
A 67-year-old Shropshire man with motor neurone disease (MND) is seeking to overturn the law banning assisted suicide.
Noel Conway is backed by the former Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now rebranded Dignity in Dying [DID]), whose lawyers will argue that the current blanket ban on assisted suicide under the Suicide Act is incompatible with his rights under sections 8 and 14 the Human Rights Act (respect for private and family life and protection from discrimination).
Mr. Conway’s case is substantially the same as that of Tony Nicklinson and Paul Lamb in 2014, except that his condition is terminal.
There have been over ten attempts to legalise assisted suicide through British Parliaments since 2003, all of which have failed. The last of these was the Marris Bill in 2015 which was defeated by an overwhelming majority of 330 to 118 in the House of Commons amidst concerns about public safety.
Frustrated at their lack of success in parliament has led DID and other campaigners to pursue their agenda through the courts.
Conway is bringing his case against the Secretary State for Justice. Three other organizations have been granted permission to intervene in the case – Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanists’ Association (BHA)) on the side of Conway and Not Dead Yet UK and Care Not Killing(CNK) on the side of the defendant.
A change in the law is opposed by every major disability rights organisation and doctors’ group, including the BMA, Royal College of GPs and the Association for Palliative Medicine, who have looked at this issue in detail and concluded that there is no safe system of assisted suicide and euthanasia anywhere in the world.
Laws in the Netherlands and Belgium that were only meant to apply to mentally competent terminally ill adults, have been extended to include the elderly, disabled, those with mental health problems and even non-mentally competent children.
While in Oregon, the model often cited by those wanting to change the law, there are examples of cancer patients being denied lifesaving and life extending drugs, yet offered the lethal cocktail of barbiturates to end their own lives.
National Right to Life continues
A 67-year-old Shropshire man with motor neurone disease (MND) is seeking to overturn the law banning assisted suicide.
Noel Conway is backed by the former Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now rebranded Dignity in Dying [DID]), whose lawyers will argue that the current blanket ban on assisted suicide under the Suicide Act is incompatible with his rights under sections 8 and 14 the Human Rights Act (respect for private and family life and protection from discrimination).
Mr. Conway’s case is substantially the same as that of Tony Nicklinson and Paul Lamb in 2014, except that his condition is terminal.
There have been over ten attempts to legalise assisted suicide through British Parliaments since 2003, all of which have failed. The last of these was the Marris Bill in 2015 which was defeated by an overwhelming majority of 330 to 118 in the House of Commons amidst concerns about public safety.
Frustrated at their lack of success in parliament has led DID and other campaigners to pursue their agenda through the courts.
Conway is bringing his case against the Secretary State for Justice. Three other organizations have been granted permission to intervene in the case – Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanists’ Association (BHA)) on the side of Conway and Not Dead Yet UK and Care Not Killing(CNK) on the side of the defendant.
A change in the law is opposed by every major disability rights organisation and doctors’ group, including the BMA, Royal College of GPs and the Association for Palliative Medicine, who have looked at this issue in detail and concluded that there is no safe system of assisted suicide and euthanasia anywhere in the world.
Laws in the Netherlands and Belgium that were only meant to apply to mentally competent terminally ill adults, have been extended to include the elderly, disabled, those with mental health problems and even non-mentally competent children.
While in Oregon, the model often cited by those wanting to change the law, there are examples of cancer patients being denied lifesaving and life extending drugs, yet offered the lethal cocktail of barbiturates to end their own lives.
National Right to Life continues
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