Right to Die Man.

Today Tony Nicklinson who is paralysed from the neck down lost his application to Britain's High Court for a change in the law on homicide to allow someone to kill him in order to put him out of the misery his condition causes. I've commented on Mr Nicklinson's case before and it is still a case entirely without merit.

If you've had the misfortune of following Mr Nicklinson's Twitter account you will know that he is perfectly capable of operating a simple electrical circuit. That electrical circuit could quite easily be used to control an electrical motor capable of injecting a syringe full of a lethal substance into Mr Nicklinson's body. Therefore he does not need someone to kill him. What he does need though is someone to assist his suicide by setting up that syringe/suicide machine. Although technically illegal in the UK this is very rarely prosecuted provided it is clear that the suicide victim was in their right mind and intended to kill themselves rather then say being pressured by a relative who wanted their money. Assisted suicide though is perfectly legal in Switzerland and people have offered to pay for Mr Nicklinson to travel to Switzerland. However Mr Nicklinson has no intention of doing either of these things instead opting to pursue a high-profile Court case presumably because he's a bit bored and likes all the attention.

The reason why the Courts have taken the unusual step of allowing Mr Nicklinson's case to proceed is because Britain is trying to use it as part of it's Olympic debrief. Apart from lots of confusing and technical legal and medical arguments in the metaphor Mr Nicklinson's 'disease' is the use of Twitter and other aspects of the Internet and his 'right to die' is free-speech. Therefore Britain is trying to get everyone to agree that free speech on the Internet should be restricted because you'll struggle to find people arguing that someone should be killed. However that point might have been lost amid the raucous laughter over Britain's attempt to threaten Ecuador over the Julian Assange case and I gather that Mr Nicklinson has proved so annoying that there are now a fair few volunteers prepared to help him die.

Beyond that it might be an attempt to make the Brits networks talking about of the risk of suicide because if I'd had the week they've just had I'd be thinking of topping myself too.

19:20 on 16/8/12.