Many Christian groups welcomed the rejection, in early October by the High Court, of an attempt to change the law on assisted suicide.
Noel Conway, who is suffering from a degenerative illness, had been granted permission to appeal by the Court of Appeal after his initial attempt to change the law on assisted suicide was rejected.
The High Court judges concluded however that Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (Right to respect for private life) is not an unlimited right, but a qualified right. It does not extend to compelling the state, and doctors, to provide a lethal cocktail of barbiturates for terminally ill people to kill themselves. They added: ‘In a free democratic society, health, morals and the rights and freedoms of others must be protected, and granting Conway his wish would have undermined this.’
