‘Guernsey has the chance to make history’
GUERNSEY has the opportunity to make history, one terminally ill motor neurone disease sufferer has said.
Noel Conway, whose disease is incurable, was commenting as the petition for assisted dying grew in numbers.
Mr Conway, who lives in Shropshire and has mounted a legal challenge in the English courts, has written to deputies pleading with them to consider people in his situation.
‘I was diagnosed with incurable amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neurone disease, in November 2014. Having been fit and active, I can no longer walk and have limited mobility in my right hand, head and neck, and use a ventilator to breathe for up to 23 hours a day.
‘I know I will die, but what I want is the right to go out on my own terms, peacefully, without undue suffering and with dignity.
‘The options available to me under the current law in England and Wales cannot guarantee that.
‘I could let nature take its course, leaving me entombed in my own body unable to communicate. I could remove my ventilator to bring about my death more quickly and slowly suffocate over several days or weeks.
‘I could travel to Switzerland, where assisted dying is available, which involves thousands of pounds, an arduous journey, and the risk of prosecution for my family if they assist me.
‘To me, these are not acceptable choices.’
A judicial review case he launched last January, challenging the blanket ban on assisted dying in England and Wales, is now being heard at the Court of Appeal.
He is arguing for a change in the law so that when he has a prognosis of less than six months left to live, and still has the mental capacity to make the decision and has made a ‘voluntary, clear, settled and informed’ decision, he should be able to receive medical help to end his life.
‘I am arguing for the right, as a terminally ill, mentally competent adult, to have the option of a legal assisted death in my home country when in my final months of life.
‘I have been forced to spend my final months doing so, because when given the opportunity to legislate to allow assisted dying in 2015, a majority of Westminster MPs voted against a change in the law. This was despite support from 80% of the British public.’
Politicians in Guernsey now had the same chance.
‘I would implore those who are sceptical to imagine themselves in my shoes, faced with the prospect of unbearable suffering and a traumatic, drawn-out death that will be agony for their loved ones to witness.
‘Guernsey has the opportunity to make history – like America, Canada and Australia has. I hope you do what Westminster failed to.’
The assisted dying debate is set for 16 May.
