Tony NIcklinson....a sufferer of locked in syndrome ..loses his high court battle to end his life

A desperate victim of ‘locked-in’ syndrome broke down in tears yesterday after losing his landmark legal battle for the right to end his life when he chooses with a doctor’s help.

Tony Nicklinson had to be comforted by his wife Jane, who said her husband was ‘absolutely heartbroken’.

Mr Nicklinson said he had been condemned by the law to ‘a life of increasing indignity and misery’.



The 58-year-old father of two from Melksham, Wiltshire, is mentally sound but paralysed from the neck down and unable to speak.

For the past seven years he has not been able to move anything apart from his head and eyes following a severe stroke while on a business trip to Athens.

His only means of communication is via a computer triggered by blinks and head movements.

Mr Nicklinson has been battling for two years to persuade three judges at the High Court to rule that if, and when, he decides he wants to die, doctors will be immune from prosecution if they help him.

Yesterday they gave him the devastating news that only Parliament can change the law of murder so that doctors or helpers can step in to assist someone to die.

The judges said that if no doctor was allowed to help Mr Nicklinson die, then his only option would be to die by starvation.

The ruling means that 58-year-old Mr Nicklinson faces decades entirely dependent on others to care for his every need.

However his wife said they would appeal. She and their grown-up daughters Lauren and Beth all support his legal battle.

Speaking through his computer, Mr Nicklinson said: ‘I am devastated by the court’s decision.

‘Although I didn’t want to raise my hopes, it happened anyway because a fantastic amount of work went into my case and I thought that if the court saw me as I am, utterly miserable with my life, powerless to do anything about it because of my disability, then the judges would accept my reasoning that I do not want to carry on and should be able to have a dignified death.

‘I am saddened that the law wants to condemn me to a life of increasing indignity and misery.



Tony in 1989 holding his baby daughter
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Mrs Nicklinson, 56, said: ‘Tony has to either carry on like this until he dies of natural causes or starves himself.’

Right-to-life campaigners said the ruling would protect the vulnerable from pressure to commit suicide or from involuntary euthanasia.

Mr Nicklinson’s case was a joint one with a 47-year-old known only as Martin because his family wishes to preserve their privacy.

He suffered a stroke four years ago and is unable to speak or move, except for small movements of his head and eyes.

Lord Justice Toulson, sitting with Mr Justice Royce and Mrs Justice Macur, rejected the claim of both men that they should be allowed help with death under Article Eight of the European human rights charter, which guarantees the right to private and family life.

Martin’s claim that the Director of Public Prosecutions must be asked to publish new guidelines allowing others to help him die was also rejected.


SOURCE : DAILY MAIL