Right-to-die court challenge on eve of move for new legislation

More than three quarters of people in Yorkshire believe patients suffering from a terminal or life-limiting illness should be able to access medical help to end their own lives, it can be reported today as Mr Nicklinson’s widow Jane challenges a High Court ruling against her husband’s bid to do so.

The Court of Appeal will also hear the case of Leeds man Paul Lamb, who was left paralysed after a car crash 23 years ago, and another locked-in syndrome sufferer who can only be identified as Martin.

Mr Nicklinson, 58, who was left unable to move or speak following a stroke in 2005, died of pneumonia last August, less than a week after losing the High Court ruling.

His ashes were scattered at Cranbrook rugby club in Kent, where he played as a young man, on Saturday.

Today’s legal challenge comes just days before a Bill is put to the House of Lords on Wednesday by the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, which would introduce a system of assisted dying similar to that in place in the US state of Oregon.

It would allow terminally-ill adults judged to have less than six months to live to ask doctors for a lethal dose of drugs.

They would be required to administer it themselves but would be able to get help if they were unable to do so independently.

But it would not help patients such as Mr Nicklinson, whose conditions are not terminal.

The Bill, based on the conclusions of peers and academics in Lord Falconer’s Commission on Assisted Dying, is the biggest Parliamentary challenge to suicide laws in recent years.

Author Sir Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer’s and is a patron of campaign group Dignity in Dying, supports a change in the law.

“I cannot see why the decision of whether to live or die is for anyone but the person facing the pain, suffering and indignity,” he said.

“I would campaign as fiercely for those who want to stick it out to the bitter end as I do for those who want the choice of assisted death – the key here is choice.”

But Baroness Campbell, founder of resistance campaign Not Dead Yet UK, said the debate on assisted dying promoted a false “choice agenda”.

The peer, who suffers from the degenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy, said: “It will insidiously lead to less choice. The NHS is already failing to care for hundreds of thousands of patients who die each year. In the NHS “assisted dying” would become the cheapest, quickest and simplest option.”

It is currently an offence in England and Wales to encourage or assist a suicide or suicide attempt.

But new research shows 79 per cent of people living in Yorkshire think assisted dying should be legalised. Some 90 per cent of those questioned in the region believe it will eventually become legal, with 60 per cent believing it will happen in their lifetime.

Around a third said it should only be allowed for those in a vegetative state, with no chance of improvement, while 41 per cent thought it should also be available to those with a severe disability that affects their quality of life.

The research, carried out by healthcare provider Benenden Health, also found 45 per cent of those surveyed in Yorkshire would help a loved one to end their life if they were asked, despite it being illegal.

More than half said they would travel to a country where assisted dying is legal if they or a loved one wished to end their life.

Spokesman Paul Keenan said: “This is a very sensitive and emotive subject, and in light of the new Bill being introduced to seek to change the law, one that we feel needs discussing, so we wanted to help facilitate a debate on the subject.

“It was astonishing to see that 79 per cent of people in Yorkshire believe that assisted dying should be made legal and this, along with the other findings, has revealed that the public has very strong opinions on the subject.”