Legal Challenge Launched Against Britain's Assisted Suicide Ban

LONDON (AP) — A British man with a terminal disease is attempting to overturn the country’s laws on assisted suicide.

The charity Dignity in Dying said in a statement Friday that 67-year-old Noel Conway has motor neurone disease, a degenerative muscle-wasting disease. He is not expected to survive another year.

Conway says he fears being “entombed” in his body and has instructed his lawyers to begin a judicial review to challenge the existing laws that prohibit people from actively helping others to die.

Conway’s lawyers will argue that the laws infringe upon his right to die with dignity. The case could be heard by the High Court in early 2017.

In 2015, the British Parliament rejected an attempt to have Britain join the countries that permit assisted dying.

Dignity in Dying is supporting Conway’s case.