POLICE commissioner Ron Hogg, who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, is calling for the law on assisted dying to be changed to allow him to end his own life.

The 67-year-old, who was elected police, crime and victims commissioner of County Durham in 2012, was told he is suffering from motor neurone disease in August.

It is an incurable condition that eventually leads to muscle wasting and death.

Mr Hogg told The Guardian he already needs help to breathe and is now challenging the law banning assisted dying.

He told the newspaper he wants the right to end his suffering at a time chosen by him and his family.

Mr Hogg, who lives in Chester-le-Street, reportedly said: “I think the law should allow assisted dying.

“Clearly you need to have safeguards. But there ought to be a clear path outlined where individuals who would want to choose that route can do so, and can do so legally within the UK.

“Those end-of-life decisions are something I’ll be considering in the next two or three weeks.”

Mr Hogg served as a police officer for 30 years and retired as deputy chief constable of the Cleveland force in 2008.

He is said to be considering going to the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland to shorten the suffering his condition will lead to.

It is understood he would to die in his in Scotland, where he was born, but the current ban on assisted dying means he will have to go overseas.

It could also mean ending his life earlier than he would want, for fear he could be too ill to travel.

Mr Hogg, who now uses a ventilator to help him breathe, said: “Thirty years as a cop, 30 years playing rugby, now I find it difficult to walk across the room.

“I’ve got limited use of my right arm.

“I’ve lost three stone in body weight, I’ve lost five inches off my chest. Simple things become so so difficult.”

He told the Guardian he understands that death comes two to five years from the onset of the disease.

Mr Hogg reportedly said: “I look at myself now and certainly become very depressed in many regards with my condition, and I can see that as things deteriorate, the life that you have, is it the life you really want, the life you think you should be leading?”

He was elected Labour police commissioner for County Durham in 2012 and the force has been named the best in the country several times since then.

Mr Hogg has now said the law regarding the ban on assisted dying should change.

Mr Hogg said: “We would not extend the life of an animal. It is to reduce unnecessary suffering, not only to the individual, but to the families.”

“I think it is morally justifiable. I think morally it is the right way forward. We do make that moral decision in the prenatal world if we have children with severe disabilities identified early on in pregnancy.

“I was born in Scotland and that is where I would rather go but I can’t do it because of the laws of the country at the moment. That’s where I was born, that’s where my heart is.”