Key question: What is being argued?

Noel believes the current law is broken and that the blanket ban on assisted dying should be changed. He believes that terminally ill, mentally competent adults should have the right to request an assisted death. Since 1961, all forms of assistance to die have been punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment.

Noel’s case is a judicial review to ask for a declaration of incompatibility. This means that Noel’s legal team will ask the courts to declare that the blanket ban on assisted dying under the Suicide Act 1961 is contrary to his rights under the Human Rights Act. They will argue that as a terminally ill, mentally competent adult, Noel’s right to a private life – which includes the right to make decisions on the end of his life – is unnecessarily restricted by the blanket ban in the 1961 Act.