LONDON: A man with “locked-in syndrome”, who can move only his head and eyes, has begun a legal test case to establish that his wife could end his life.
Since suffering a stroke five years ago, Tony Nicklinson, 56, has been able to communicate only by means of a Perspex board and letters — looking, blinking and nodding to spell out words.
Once a senior manager with an engineering company and a rugby player, he now has round-the-clock care and says that he does not wish to “dribble my way into old age”.
Mr Nicklinson is asking the British Director of Public Prosecutions to clarify the law in cases of “mercy killing”.
His solicitor, Saimo Chahal, yesterday issued proceedings in the High Court seeking a judicial review from DPP Keir Starmer.
His legal team wants guidance on whether it is always in the public interest to prosecute in cases of “consensual killing”. He wants guidance to ensure that his wife, Jane, 54, could take “active steps” to end his life and not be prosecuted for murder.
His lawyers will argue the law of murder constitutes a disproportionate interference with his right to personal autonomy under Article 8 (right to private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
If they fail, they will challenge Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke to review the law on murder in the context of mercy killing.
Assistance would be regarded as euthanasia, which in England and Wales amounts to murder. Mercy killing is no defence.
In a witness statement, Mr Nicklinson said: “I cannot scratch if I itch. I cannot pick my nose if it is blocked and I can only eat if I am fed like a baby. I have no privacy or dignity left. I am washed, dressed and put to bed by carers who are, after all, still strangers.
“I am fed up with my life and don’t want to spend the next 20 years or so like this. Am I grateful that the Athens doctors saved my life? No, I am not.”
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