Right-to-die campaigner passes
away after losing court battle

Mr Nicklinson, who lost a landmark High Court right-to-die action last week, suffered rapidly deteriorating health during the last few days after contracting pneumonia.

Family solicitor Saimo Chahal said: “I am extremely sad to tell you that I received a call at 10.45am from Jane Nicklinson to inform me that her husband Tony died peacefully at home at about 10am this morning.

“Jane told me that Tony went rapidly downhill over last weekend, having contracted pneumonia.

“He had made an advanced directive in 2004 refusing any life-sustaining treatment and also refused food from last week.”

Ms Chahal, of law firm Bindmans, added: “Jane said that, after Tony received the draft judgment on August 12 refusing his claim, the fight seemed to go out of him.

“He said that he was heartbroken by the High Court decision that he could not end his life at a time of his choosing with the help of a new doctor.

“He could not understand how the legal argument on his behalf could not succeed.”

She said she visited Mr Nicklinson with his barrister Paul Bowen QC on Tuesday August 14.

She said Mr Nicklinson told her: “So, we lost. In truth I am crestfallen, totally devastated and very frightened. I fear for the future and the misery it is bound to bring.

“I suppose it was wrong of me to invest so much hope and expectation into the judgment but I really believed in the veracity of the argument and quite simply could not understand how anybody could disagree with the logic.

“I guess I forgot the emotional component.”

Assisted suicide campaigner Debbie Purdy, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, paid tribute to Mr Nicklinson.

“For somebody who couldn’t speak he was very loud-mouthed,” she said from her home in Bradford, West Yorkshire. “But that’s Tony and I hope people remember that this was somebody who was prepared to put the interests of other people before his own.”

Mr Nicklinson died at home in Wiltshire with his wife Jane, his daughters Beth and Lauren and his sister, Ginny, beside him.

Ms Chahal said: “They totally supported his legal action to change the law.

“One of the last things Tony did was to prepare a tweet which his daughter has just released.”

Ms Chahal said: “One question that many of Tony’s followers have been asking is ‘what now?’ in terms of the legal action that Tony fought so hard to pursue and the legal principles he hoped to establish.

“The appeal that he had initiated will come to an end unless someone steps forward in similar circumstances to pursue the action.”

She added; “I would like to say what an extraordinary man Tony was. He was gutsy, determined and a fighter to the end.”

Ms Chahal said it had been an “absolute privilege for me and his barrister” to have been in his legal team.

She added: “I only wish the outcome of the case could have been different during Tony’s lifetime.

“I know that the right to die with dignity issues that Tony championed will not be forgotten due to the light that Tony shone on them and that this important debate will continue due to Tony.”