Prue Leith backs assisted dying campaign in support of terminally ill man

Television presenter Prue Leith has backed calls for assisted dying to be legalised, after speaking about her brother's ‘agonising’ death from bone cancer.

The Great British Bake Off judge was speaking as Noel Conway, 68, began a three-day case at the Court of Appeal on 1 May to end his own life. The university lecturer, who is living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), has six months to live.

His case is being supported by campaign group Dignity in Dying, which is working towards a law change for dying people to have "greater choice at the end of life".

Prue Leith, who is a patron of the organisation said: “My brother suffered months of agony and a horrific death from bone cancer. David’s doctors would not give him enough morphine ‘for fear he’d become addicted’. The real reason, of course, was the fear of being prosecuted for unlawful killing if the extra morphine should hasten his death.

“We should not put patients or doctors in this untenable position.”

The Noel Conway case

The Noel Conway case was previously rejected by the High Court in October last year, but permission to appeal was granted in January 2018.

The High Court judgment on the case confirmed that the courts have the authority to make a declaration of incompatibility between the 1961 Suicide Act (which criminalised assisting someone to die) and human rights legislation.

On Monday 30 April, MPs and peers were invited to attend a briefing on the Noel Conway case and speak to people personally affected by the ban on assisted dying.

In attendance was Hollywood actor Sir Patrick Stewart, who has also voiced his support for Mr Conway's case, citing the experiences of a "dear friend" who died from cancer.

He told attendees: “A dear friend of mine was in great pain with multiple cancers throughout her body. She attempted to end her own life with an overdose of medication before finally resorting to suffocating herself with a plastic bag. How can we continue to support the status quo when it forces dying people to resort to such drastic measures?”

Mr Conway, from Shropshire, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a form of MND, in November 2014. His condition is incurable and terminal.

The retired college lecturer feels that he is prevented from exercising his right to choice and control over his death under the current law and fears that without a change in the law, he may be forced to suffer against his wishes.

Mr Conway is bringing this case against the Ministry of Justice to fight for his right to have the option of an assisted death.

Broken law

“I am now dependent on a ventilator for up to 23 hours a day and the only movement I have left is in my right hand, head and neck,” he said. “I know this decline will continue until my inevitable death. This I have sadly come to terms with, but what I cannot accept is that the law in my home country denies me the right to die on my own terms.

“Why should I slowly suffocate over days or weeks by removing my ventilator – the only legal option available to me in the UK? Why should I have to spend thousands of pounds, travel hundreds of miles and have my family risk prosecution for helping me get to Switzerland for an assisted death? Why can I not be given the chance to say goodbye to my loved ones and go with dignity, in my own home, when the time is right for me?

“I’ve been touched by the outpouring of support and well wishes I’ve had from members of the public, others nearing the end of their lives and people who have seen just how much damage our broken law can do. For all of these people, I will keep on fighting.”

Commenting on the case, Mr Conway's solicitor Yogi Amin, partner and head of public law and human rights at Irwin Mitchell, added: “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.”

According to Dignity in Dying, every eight days someone travels to Switzerland from Britain for a legal assisted death – a process which costs £10,000 on average and often causes people to die earlier than they would have wanted in order to be well enough to make the journey.

Recent polling found that over half of people would consider travelling abroad for an assisted death if terminally ill and two-thirds would consider breaking the law to help a loved one do so, yet only a quarter would be able to afford it. A further 300 terminally ill people end their own life in the UK every year.

For more information go to: www.dignityindying.org.uk