Disappointed campaigners highlight confirmation that the court has the authority to declare the law incompatible with human rights.

A ‘right to die’ case brought by terminally ill man Noel Conway has failed in the High Court for a second time. In judgment handed down today in Noel Conway and Secretary of State for Justice [2017] EWHC 2447, the court rejected Conway’s judicial review.

Conway said: ‘I am deeply disappointed by today’s judgment and fully intend to appeal it.’

His solicitor, Irwin Mitchell partner Yogi Amin added: ‘We will now seek permission to take the case to the Appeal courts… Noel… has proposed a new legal framework with safeguards in place of the current blanket ban on assisted dying.'

Conway’s case failed in the High Court on 31 March, but within a fortnight was directed to reconsider the case by the Court of Appeal. He has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neurone disease.

In a joint statement Dignity in Dying, which supported the case, and Irwin Mitchell drew attention to confirmation in the judgment that the courts have the authority to make a declaration of incompatibility between the 1961 Suicide Act and human rights legislation.

Conway is one of two high profile assisted dying cases going through the courts, along with Omid v The Ministry of Justice. Omid has a degenerative but non-terminal disease.