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Stephen Hawking has backed the idea of assisted suicide for people suffering from a terminal illness.

Prof Hawking, 71, who has motor neurone disease (MND), had previously been less supportive of the right to die and once branded it a mistake because “there is always hope”.

But in an interview which will spark fresh debate over euthanasia, the cosmologist said: “We don’t let animals suffer, so why humans?”

He added: “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.”

Prof Hawking, who is one of the world’s top scientists, was diagnosed with his incurable condition aged 21 and was warned he had just two or three years to live.

Following a bout of pneumonia in 1985, he was placed on a life support machine which his first wife, Jane Hawking, had the option to switch off.

Recovering from the disease, Prof Hawking went on to complete his science bestseller A Brief History of Time, which sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

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.

Referring to euthanasia in 2006, he said: “The victim should have the right to end his life, if he wants.

"But I think it would be a great mistake.

“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at.

"While there’s life, there is hope.”