Sufferer may face 20 years of ‘torture’ court told

Mr Nicklinson, who suffered a catastrophic stroke in 2005 while on a business trip to Athens, sums up his existence as “dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable”.

A “very active and outgoing” man before the stroke, which left him paralysed below the neck, he can now communicate only by blinking or with limited head movement.

Paul Bowen QC, for the 58-year-old, from Melksham, Wiltshire, told three judges hearing his landmark “right-to-die” case: “Tony has now had almost seven years to contemplate his situation.

“With the continuing benefits of 21st century health and social care his life expectancy can be expected to be normal – another 20 years or more. He does not wish to live that life.”

Mr Bowen told Lord Justice Toulson, Mr Justice Royce and Mrs Justice Macur that Mr Nicklinson was not seeking to persuade the court to “introduce an all-encompassing new regime legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide”, accepting that could be done only by parliament, but in the absence of statutory regulation he was entitled to “remedy” from the court.

He is seeking two declarations – one is that in the circumstances of his case, and where an order has been sought from the court in advance, “the common law defence of necessity would be available to a doctor who, acting out of his professional and human duty, assisted him to die”.

The other is that the current law of assisted suicide and euthanasia is incompatible with his Article 8 rights of autonomy and dignity .

The hearing was attended by his wife Jane, 56, and the couple’s daughters Lauren, 24, and Beth, 23, who all support his decision.

Although he could not attend the London courtroom, Mr Nicklinson was determined to get his case across to the judges.

An email he sent to his solicitor, asking if it was possible for the lawyer to “tell/remind the judges a few things”, was read out by Mr Bowen.

In the email he states: “I have wanted my life to end since 2007, so it is not a passing whim.”

Mr Nicklinson also pointed out: “Legal arguments are fine but they should not forget that a life is affected by the decision they come to; a decision going against me condemns me to a ‘life’ of increasing misery.”

Opposing the action, David Perry QC, for the Ministry of Justice, said Mr Nicklinson’s “tragic and very distressing circumstances evoke the deepest sympathy”.

But he said there was “no defence of necessity to a charge of murder or assisted suicide if a doctor were to terminate, or assist in the termination of, the claimant’s life”.

During a four-day hearing the judges will also hear argument in a judicial review claim by another locked-in syndrome victim who needs assistance to end his life. Part of the case brought by the 47-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, involves a challenge against the Director of Public Prosecution’s policy on assisted suicide.

The case continues.