Man wins right to continue Tony Nicklinson's right-to-die campaign

 
Tony Nicklinson and wife
SWNS
13 March 2013

A paralysed road accident victim has won the right to continue the right-to-die campaign started by locked-in syndrome sufferer Tony Nicklinson who died last year.

The 57-year-old man, who can only be identified as L, is completely immobile except for limited movement in his right hand and has been in significant pain since the 1990 tragedy.

In evidence before London's High Court, he said he wanted a doctor to help him die in a dignified way, preferably by a lethal injection, with his family around him in his own home, as he felt worn out and fed up of going through the motions of life rather than living it.

The divorced father-of-two added: "I feel that I cannot and do not want to keep living, I feel trapped by the situation and have no way out."

Mr Nicklinson, 58, died at home in Melksham, Wiltshire last August, a week after he lost his High Court bid to end his life with a doctor's help.

He had been refusing food and contracted pneumonia after he was left "crestfallen" by the decision of Lord Justice Toulson, Mr Justice Royce and Mrs Justice Macur.

Refusing judicial review, they agreed that the current law did not breach human rights and it was for Parliament, not the courts, to decide whether it should be changed.

After Mr Nicklinson's death, his widow, Jane, vowed to continue his battle and a four day appeal hearing is due in the summer.

Today, Lord Justice Elias allowed L to be added to the litigation, permitted Mrs Nicklinson to amend her case so that she can bring a human rights claim on her own account, and gave the go ahead for them to pursue their appeal.

Paul Bowen QC said that at that hearing, he would be asking for the High Court decision to be set aside and for the case to be sent back to a different panel of judges to be reconsidered.

He told the judge that the High Court had refused to address the substantive issue and admit further evidence: "We are here because the court ducked the issue."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in