Professor Stephen Hawking has decided to publicly back the notion of assisted suicide for people suffering from a terminal illness arguing "we don't let animals suffer, so why humans?"
Professor Hawking, who suffers from progressive motor neurone disease believes that family members of those who are put on a life support machine, who wish to die, should be able to assist with that wish and not have to be afraid of prosecution.
"There must be safeguards," he added to the BBC. "that the person concerned genuinely wants to end their life and they are not being pressurized into it or have it done without their knowledge or consent as would have been the case with me."
Hawking was himself once put on a life support machine. His wife was given the option of switching it off but, obviously, refused.
Professor Hawking was diagnosed with his disease when he was 21 and given two to three years to live just after marrying his first wife Jane in 1964. Since that time, Professor Hawking has lived to be 71-years-old and has become one of the worlds most famous scientists, most known for his work on the study of black holes.
"Theoretical physics is one field where being disabled is not a handicap. It is all in the mind," said the scientist who currently works at Cambridge University, according to Fox News. Hawking encourages all people with physical disabilities to find what it is they can do instead of focusing on the regret that comes with thinking about what they cannot do.
Assisted suicide is illegal in Britain and the issue of whether or not to decriminalize it has been a matter of debate for quite some time. Hawking's voice in the matter will likely be an influential one. His public comments come on the eve of a Virtigo Films documentary about his life titled "Hawking" is set for a release on Sept. 20.
