Crash victim takes up the legal fight for right to die

Paul Lamb, 58, of Bramley, Leeds, has taken on the case begun by Tony Nicklinson, saying the “cruel” law that forbids assisted deaths must be changed.

Mr Nicklinson, 58, died last year shortly after he lost his legal bid to end his life with a doctor’s help, but his family won permission to continue his campaign.

Mr Lamb, who yesterday waived anonymity to speak out, has joined the challenge and the two cases will be heard in the Court of Appeal next month.

The former builder, who suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident in 1990, said in a statement: “I hope that this is the next step towards the ultimate goal of changing this cruel law, which keeps people like me alive when I want to have a dignified death. To be given this chance of being involved in the case makes me very proud.”

He cannot use any of his limbs apart from slight movement in his right hand, is in constant pain and needs round-the-clock care.

As the Court of Appeal heard Mr Lamb’s request last month for the right to pick up where Mr Nicklinson left off, he said in a statement he would like a doctor to help him die by lethal injection, preferably in his own home.

“I feel trapped by the situation and I have no way out,” he said. “My daily routine is tedious, monotonous and pointless. I often go to bed early at 5pm – such is the pointlessness of it all.

“People tell me that I must keep trying, but there is only so much that a person can take.

“What I would like to do is be able to hug those people who are closest to me and say goodbye to them. I wish to find peace.”

Mrs Nicklinson, of Melksham, Wiltshire, said her late husband would be “very pleased” with Mr Lamb’s decision. “We needed someone like Tony to be able to carry on the case, asking for a doctor-assisted death,” she said.

Disability charity Scope said it strongly opposed any change to the law.

Chief executive Richard Hawkes said: “Although many people will sympathise with these cases, we must remember that the current law on assisted suicide protects the lives of disabled people in Britain. Many disabled people tell us that without this legal protection, they would live under the assumption that they are a burden on society more widely and their loved ones.”

‘I want dignity’: Page 11