Assisted suicide: Shropshire disability campaigners launch move to change the law
Two disability campaigners will be back in the High Court tomorrow to appeal against changes in the law regarding assisted suicide.
Merv and Nikki Kenward will travel to London in a bid to gain permission to overturn a High Court ruling regarding assisted suicide.
In October 2014 Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders decided she would allow an amendment the 1961 Suicide Act.
It clarified that prosecution should not to extend to outside professionals brought in to assist suicide after the victim has reached a settled decision to end his or her life.
But the couple's application for a judicial review heard in 2015 was unanimously dismissed by Sir Brian Leveson, president of the Queen's Bench Division, sitting with Mr Justice Wilkie and Mr Justice Cranston.
Mrs Kenward, 62, from Aston-on-Clun, near Craven Arms has sought a hearing to request an appeal against the decision.
It is the first step to prevent assisted suicide becoming legal in the UK as it is in several countries in mainland Europe.
"Five people a day die in assisted suicides in Belgium and there are no figures available for Holland," said Mrs Kenward, who was left paralysed by Guillain-Barre Syndrome in 1990 and is cared for by her husband.
"I run a group called Distant Voices and I represent the views of disabled people who oppose assisted suicide."
Assisted suicide or end-of-life help is available in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Mrs Kenward was speaking after it was revealed that a former lecturer from Shrewsbury says he wants the option of assisted dying.
Noel Conway, who has motor neurone disease and has just months to live, is bringing a judicial review which could change the law on assisted dying.
This would allow terminally ill adults who meet strict criteria to make their own decisions about ending their lives.
"I speak to people about euthanasia and they assume that you want to die," said Mrs Kenward. But then I say I am opposed to it and they are amazed. People do not know the whole story."
MPs voted in 2015 against an attempt to introduce assisted dying.
