Noel Conway: ‘I’m with Noel’ says Bake Off judge Prue Leith
Bake Off judge Prue Leith has spoken of her support for Noel Conway, the Shrewsbury man fighting for the right to die with dignity.
Ms Leith spoke of how her brother died in agony because doctors were afraid of hastening his death.
The restaurateur and presenter said her brother David "suffered months of agony and a horrific death from bone cancer".
She posed with a sign backing Mr Conway, who is suffering from motor neurone disease and has brought an assisted dying case to the Court of Appeal.
Mr Conway was today back at Telford County Court, where he is following events at London's High Court via a video link.
He wants a change in the law so that people with terminal illnesses are able to chose when they die in the UK without the fear of prosecution for their loved ones.
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Ms Leith said: "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."
Her brother, who had worked for the RAF and for Leith's company Good Food, died in 2012 at the age of 74.
Having moved to South Africa, he became ill during a visit to England to see his son and daughter.
He initially told relatives that he had wrenched his back moving a fridge but was persuaded to see a doctor and was diagnosed with bone cancer.
He became too ill to travel and was eventually forced to refuse antibiotics and allow the pneumonia brought on by his condition to kill him.
The Bake Off judge spoke as retired university lecturer Noel Conway, 68, began a three-day case at the Court of Appeal.
Outlining his case to three senior judges, Mr Conway's lawyers said the law as it stands interferes with his rights and that the court must decide whether that interference is "justified and proportionate".
Nathalie Lieven QC said: "The question for this court is not a very generalised one of the morality or ethics of allowing doctors to assist patients to die.
"The question for this court is rather a focused one of whether for this very specific cohort, i.e., terminally ill people with less than six months to live, the ban is justifiable because of an impact on the weak and vulnerable."
The case is due to end tomorrow and a judgement is expected in the next few weeks.
Mr Conway, who was accompanied in court by his wife Carol, previously asked the High Court for a declaration that the Suicide Act 1961, which outlaws assisted suicide, is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to respect for private and family life, and Article 14, which protects from discrimination.
His case was rejected in October last year, and he is appealing to the higher court to overturn that ruling.