Noel Conway, 67, has motor-neurone disease - he cannot walk and is reliant on a ventilator. He wished to enable doctors to be able to assist him in having a "peaceful and dignified" death. His legal argument was based on his right to his "private life and family life". However, the judges maintained the current law, ruling that anyone who assists Noel Conway would be committing a crime.
The alliance, Care Not Killing support the ruling. Dr Peter Saunders, the campaign director explained the decision: "The judges' ruling was really pretty emphatic... there's been over ten attempts to change the law in British parliament in the last 15 years but all have failed because of concerns about public safety and the ramifications for vulnerable people".
Reacting to the judgement, Dr Saunders said: "Conway has a terminal condition but that didn't seem to deter the judges in any way...it was pretty clear that they had put a huge amount of weight on the medical evidence and the evidence from disabled people about how any change couldn't be controlled and they'd also looked at what had happened in other jurisdictions".
"In the penultimate paragraph they talk about the dangers of a slippery slope and an expansion of categories of people to be included. It seems they really have listened to doctors, disabled people and made great note of the number of times it's been debated in Britain and the evidence that has been brought and they say there's no new evidence to change the law at the moment."
Here the full interview with Dr Peter Saunders and Premier's Cara Bentley. She started by asking what the ruling meant: