Professor Stephen Hawking has spoken out in favour of assisted suicide for people with terminal diseases.
Professor Hawking, who has motor neurone disease (MND), had previously been less supportive of the right to die, saying it was a mistake as “there is always hope”.
In an interview which will reignite the heated debate surrounding euthanasia, the 71-year-old cosmologist said: “We don’t let animals suffer, so why humans?”
He said: “I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their lives and those who help them should be free from prosecution.
“But there must be safeguards that the person concerned genuinely wants to end their life and they are not being pressurised into it or have it done without their knowledge or consent, as would have been the case with me.”
Professor Hawking was diagnosed with his disabling and incurable condition aged 21 and told that he had just two or three years to live.Only 5% of people with the kind of MND he has called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease survive for more than a decade after diagnosis.
