A British High Court case brought by a locked-in syndrome sufferer who wants a doctor to be able to lawfully end his “intolerable” life, should be allowed to proceed, a judge ruled today.
Mr Justice Charles, sitting in London, had been asked to rule on an application by the Ministry of Justice that severely disabled Tony Nicklinson’s action should be “struck out”.
Mr Nicklinson (57), who is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Wiltshire, wants a doctor to be able “lawfully” to end his life, which he sums up as “dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable”.
He launched a legal action seeking court declarations that a doctor could intervene to end his “indignity” and have a “common law defence of necessity” against any murder charge.
Mr Nicklinson, who communicates through the use of a perspex board or by using his Eye-Blink computer, is seeking declarations that it is lawful for a doctor to terminate his life, with his consent and with him making the decision with full mental capacity.
At a previous hearing, David Perry QC, representing the Ministry of Justice, said Mr Nicklinson “is saying the court should positively authorise and permit as lawful the deliberate taking of his life”.
However, Mr Justice Charles today gave Mr Nicklinson the go-ahead to take his case further in judicial review proceedings in relation to two of three declarations sought.
Before today’s ruling Mr Nicklinson’s wife, former nurse Jane Nicklinson, said there was a “huge amount” of public support for his bid for a doctor to be able to “lawfully” end his life.
"The only way to relieve Tony's suffering will be to kill him. There is absolutely nothing else that can be done for him," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "We know there are doctors out there who would do it if it is made legal."
She added: “It is what he wants and we are all - the girls and I and his sister and all my family - are totally behind him. If you knew the kind of person that he was before, a life like this is unbearable for him.
“People think he wants to die straight away. He doesn’t - he just wants to know that when the time comes he has a way out,” Mrs Nicklinson said.
PA