Assisted suicide/euthanasia must be expanded to those with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, a former UK high court judge told MPs in Westminster yesterday. This shows that campaigners already want the planned law to go beyond the terminally ill with six months to live.

Sir Nicholas Mostyn, who has Parkinson’s, argued that under the current terms of the law passing through parliament, the vast majority of people would need to have terminal cancer to avail of an ‘assisted death’.

Mostyn said the suffering of Parkinson’s patients near the end-of-life was “intolerable”, with some unable to swallow or breathe.

The former senior family judge said that in his opinion there was no legal possibility of challenging the assisted suicide bill, once it became law, to include those with neurodegenerative diseases, as the European court of human rights had already ruled there was no specific right to die.