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01 November 2017 / David Lawson
Issue: 7769 / Categories: Features , Public , Human rights , Constitutional law
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Assisted suicide: a question for the courts?

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Post-Conway, David Lawson considers the future of challenges to the law on assisted suicide
  • Review of attempts to over-turn the law against assisting people to commit suicide and euthanasia.
  • Application of Art 8 of the European Convention to the criminal law.

The recent case of R (on the application of Conway) v Secretary of State for Justice (Humanists UK and others intervening) [2017] EWHC 2447, [2017] All ER (D) 22 (Oct) concerns a man suffering from motor neurone disease.

Mr Conway wants the option to end his life when he considers it is no longer worth living. He brought an application seeking a declaration of incompatibility in respect of s 2 of the Suicide Act 1961 (SA 1961), arguing that section is a disproportionate interference with his right to private life under Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The claimant proposed that any lawful scheme would involve safeguards such as a prognosis that the person has less than six months to live

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