Under the username @TonyNicklinson, he wrote: “Hello world. I am tony nicklinson, I have locked-in syndrome and this is my first ever tweet.” …

Nicklinson, 57, can only communicate by using a computer that follows his eye movements. Software converts his eye movement into the letters of the alphabet and in turn into words and speech. …

Nicklinson suffered a stroke in 2005 while on a business trip to Athens. He is asking the court to grant declarations that a doctor could intervene to end his “indignity”, with his consent and with him making the decision with full mental capacity, and have a “common law defence of necessity” against any murder charge.