A severely-disabled 57-year-old man is to ask a High Court judge to allow a doctor to "lawfully" end his life, solicitors said today.

Lawyers want a ruling that a doctor could intervene to end Tony Nicklinson's "indignity" and have a "common law defence of necessity"

against any murder charge.

They expect a judge in the Family Division of the High Court to begin hearing arguments in the near future and say the case will be a "test"

which raises "difficult" questions about euthanasia.

Mr Nicklinson - who is married with two grown up daughters and lives in Melksham, had a stroke in 2005 and was left with "locked in syndrome", say lawyers.

"The effect of the stroke is that Tony cannot move anything except his head and eyes. He is paralysed below the neck, unable to speak and needs help with every single aspect of his life," said a spokesman for law firm Bindmans, which represents Mr Nicklinson.

"However, Tony is mentally competent and can make decisions about life.

He believes fervently in the right to self determination.

"He communicates through the use of a perspex board or by using his Eye-Blink computer and sums up his life as 'dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable'.

"He is too physically disabled to take his own life but he wants the right to self-determination, just like any able-bodied person, who can choose to take his or her own life."

The spokesman added: "(Mr Nicklinson) has today issued proceedings in the High Court asking for declarations that it is lawful for a doctor to terminate his life, with his consent and with him making the decision with full mental capacity.

"He seeks a declaration that the common law defence of necessity is available to a charge of murder in a case of voluntary active euthanasia, provided that the court has sanctioned the act in advance."

Solicitor Saimo Chahal said: "This will be a test case and raises many difficult legal, moral and ethical questions about euthanasia."

Ms Chahal added: "Tony's case is a very compelling one and ultimately it is for the court to weigh up the evidence and to decide."

Lawyers said Mr Nicklinson had been married to his wife Jane for 25 years and the couple had two daughters - Lauren, 24 and Beth, 23.

They said he had a stoke in June 2005 while working as a manager for a Greek civil engineering company based in the United Arab Emirates.

"When the time is right I want to be able to die at home with a drug which a doctor could give me so that I can take it with help and go to sleep peacefully with my family around to say goodbye to me," said Mr Nicklinson, in a statement issued by Bindmans. "That would be a good death."

He added: "What I have to look forward to is a wretched ending with uncertainty, pain, and suffering while my family watch on helplessly.

Why must I suffer these indignities? If I were able bodied I could put an end to my life when I want to. Why is life so cruel?"