Tony Nicklinson, locked-in syndrome sufferer, has died
before he died, he asked us to tweet: ‘Goodbye world the time has come, I had some fun’
— TonyNicklinson (@TonyNicklinson) August 22, 2012Tony died six days after the failure of his high court bid to be allowed to end his life with the help of a doctor.
In June, he used Twitter to speak with readers and Observer journalist Elizabeth Day about his life, his hopes and living with locked-in syndrome.
If it wasn’t for an incredible amount of self control, I’d be crying right now. Still misting up, I’ll admit.
As somebody who spent a long, long time working with people with disabilities, the most awful part of the job was opposite ends of the spectrum: the people who had suffered from a medical issue and had their lives utterly changed, and those who wanted desperately to have a normal life but were constantly knocked back due to their condition. Sure, none of it was ever easy, but these two disparate groups always railed the hardest against their societally-constrained lives.
Many will say “well, he wanted to die; what’s the issue now?” The issue is, there will be an investigation into the circumstances. People will be questioned, lives will be affected, and hearts will break and be hurt again and again. Because, sadly, this will always be a matter of “if he wanted to be allowed to die, and then soon after being rejected the right dies, then this is very suspicious”. There will always be suspicions, accusations, that this was murder or suicide.
And they don’t need that right now.
