Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Professor Stephen Hawking:"I think everyone should have the right to choose to end their life" 
 
 Cambridge scientist Stephen Hawking is backing the Assisted Dying Bill which is being debated by peers on Friday. 
 
 The 72-year-old cosmologist said it was "discrimination against the disabled to deny them the right to kill themselves that able bodied people have." 
 
 He said safeguards would be needed to ensure the person truly wanted to die. 
 
 Lord Falconers's bill proposes allowing doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live. 
 
 I briefly tried to commit suicide by not breathing. However, the reflex to breathe was too strong Prof Stephen Hawking 
 
 More than 130 peers have put their names down to speak. 
 
 The Bill would enable doctors to help patients die by prescribing a lethal dose of drugs. 
 
 Two physicians would have to certify that the patient was terminally ill and expected to die within six months. 
 
 'Freedom of the individual' 
 
 Prof Hawking said it would be "wrong to despair and commit suicide, unless one is in great pain, but that is a matter of choice. 
 
 "We should not take away the freedom of the individual to choose to die." 
 
 But he admitted that he had once briefly tried to end his life when he had a tracheostomy - an operation to fit a breathing tube. 
 
 "I briefly tried to commit suicide by not breathing. However, the reflex to breathe was too strong." 
 
 This interview with Prof Hawking is part of the wider coverage of the differing views on this issue running on BBC News this week in the run-up to the debate. ||||| Professor Stephen Hawking, the physicist, would consider assisted suicide if he felt he had nothing more to contribute to the world and was merely a burden, he has said. 
 
 Prof Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, has argued that keeping someone alive against their own wishes is the “ultimate indignity”, saying he would think about it in the event he was suffering great pain. 
 
 In an interview with Dara O’Briain, for a new BBC programme, the world-renowned scientist disclosed he suffered bouts of loneliness, because people can be afraid to talk to him or let him answer. 
 
 In a programme to be broadcast on BBC One on June 15, Prof Hawking will offer further insights into his own life, alongside interviews with his children. 
 
 
 
 Professor Stephen Hawking (L) and his wife Elaine Mason 
 
 When asked by O’Briain about his support for assisted dying, and what condition he would have to be in to consider it for himself, the physicist said: "To keep someone alive against their wishes is the ultimate indignity. 
 
 "I would consider assisted suicide only if I were in great pain or felt I had nothing more to contribute but was just a burden to those around me.” 
 
 But, he added: "I am damned if I'm going to die before I have unravelled more of the universe.” 
 
 He is not in pain, he said, but suffers occasional discomfort because he cannot adjust his own position. 
 
 O’Briain, a comedian and broadcaster who has a degree in theoretical physics, praised Prof Hawking for his “impressively honest answers, even to the most direct questions”. 
 
 He also asked the 73-year-old physicist, who communicates through his famous speech synthesiser, whether he ever finds life lonely. 
 
 “At times I get very lonely because people are afraid to talk to me or don't wait for me to write a response,” said Prof Hawking, who is currently trialling even more sophisticated communication technology. 
 
 “I'm shy and tired at times. I find it difficult to talk to people I don't know." 
 
 
 
 Professor Stephen Hawking as a younger man 
 
 When asked about what he misses about being able-bodied, he added: "I would like to be able to swim again. When my children were young, I missed not being able to play with them physically." 
 
 The programme will also feature interviews with Lucy, his daughter, his youngest son Tim, and his Cambridge research students and will tie in with the film premiere of The Theory of Everything, as well as his cameo appearance in a Comic Relief sketch. 
 
 The film saw Eddie Redmayne win a Bafta and an Oscar for his portrayal of Prof Hawking, with Felicity Jones as his wife Jane, in the story of their young love and subsequent struggle with his diagnosis. 
 
 The full interview will be broadcast as part of one-off programme “Dara O’Briain meets Stephen Hawking”, on BBC One on June 15. ||||| Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering. 
 
 For example, it could be considered euthanasia if a doctor deliberately gave a patient with a terminal illness an overdose of muscle relaxants to end their life. 
 
 Assisted suicide is the act of deliberately assisting or encouraging another person to kill themselves. If a relative of a person with a terminal illness obtained strong sedatives, knowing that the person intended to use the sedatives to kill themselves, they may be considered to be assisting suicide. 
 
 The law 
 
 Both euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal under English law. 
 
 Assisted suicide 
 
 Assisted suicide is illegal under the terms of the Suicide Act (1961) and is punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment. Trying to kill yourself is not a criminal act. 
 
 Euthanasia 
 
 Depending on the circumstances, euthanasia is regarded as either manslaughter or murder. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment. 
 
 Types of euthanasia 
 
 Euthanasia can be classified as: 
 
 voluntary euthanasia, where a person makes a conscious decision to die and asks for help to do so 
 
 non-voluntary euthanasia, where a person is unable to give their consent to treatment (for example, because they're in a coma) and another person takes the decision on their behalf, often because the ill person previously expressed a wish for their life to be ended in such circumstances 
 
 Active and passive euthanasia 
 
 You may have heard the terms "active euthanasia" and "passive euthanasia". 
 
 "Active euthanasia" is sometimes used to refer to deliberately intervening to end someone's life – for example, by injecting them with a large dose of sedatives. 
 
 "Passive euthanasia" is sometimes used to refer to causing someone's death by withholding or withdrawing treatment that is necessary to maintain life. 
 
 It's important not to confuse "passive euthanasia" with withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in the person's best interests. Withdrawing life-sustaining treatment because it's in the person's best interests can be part of good palliative care and is not euthanasia. 
 
 End of life care 
 
 If you are approaching the end of life, you have a right to good palliative care – to control pain and other symptoms – as well as psychological, social and spiritual support. 
 
 You can find out more about: 
 
 Find palliative care services near you. ||||| Physicist tells BBC programme he would consider ending his life if he had nothing more to contribute and was a burden to those around him 
 
 Stephen Hawking has said he would consider ending his own life if he became a burden to others or if he had “nothing more to contribute”. 
 
 But the physicist and cosmologist told a forthcoming BBC programme he knows he has much more scientific work to do, despite his advanced motor neurone disease. 
 
 “To keep someone alive against their wishes is the ultimate indignity,” Hawking, 73, told his interviewer, the comedian Dara O’Briain. “I would consider assisted suicide only if I were in great pain or felt I had nothing more to contribute but was just a burden to those around me.” 
 
 O’Briain, who himself has a degree in theoretical physics, said Hawking would give “impressively honest answers” in the programme, according to the Telegraph. 
 
 It is not the first time Hawking has voiced support for assisted suicide – in 2014, he revealed in a BBC interview how he had attempted to die after a mid-1980s tracheostomy operation. “I briefly tried to commit suicide by not breathing,” he said. “However, the reflex to breathe was too strong.” 
 
 Hawking, who is the director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, has said those who help their loved ones who want to die should be immune from prosecution. 
 
 But he has also said he believes safeguards should ensure a person genuinely wishes to die, pointing to a famous incident in his own life. In 1985, when suffering complications from pneumonia, his then-wife, Jane, refused to turn off his life support machine. Hawking recovered and went on to complete his critically and popularly acclaimed book A Brief History of Time. 
 
 In his forthcoming BBC interview, Hawking said he felt he had many more discoveries to make and theories to produce. “I am damned if I’m going to die before I have unravelled more of the universe,” he said. 
 
 
 
 I am damned if I’m going to die before I have unravelled more of the universe Stephen Hawking 
 
 The scientist expressed regret at not being able to easily communicate, with peers and fans, who he said are often nervous of approaching him or making conversation. 
 
 “At times I get very lonely because people are afraid to talk to me or don’t wait for me to write a response,” he said. “I’m shy and tired at times. I find it difficult to talk to people I don’t know.” 
 
 Hawking, who was told aged 21 he would have just two years to live and has been in a wheelchair since the late 1960s, said he still felt frustrated by his loss of movement. “I would like to be able to swim again,” he said. “When my children were young, I missed not being able to play with them physically.” 
 
 It is currently still a criminal offence in the UK to assist someone to take their own life but 2010 guidance from the Department of Public Prosecutions makes it unlikely for friends and family to be prosecuted. 
 
 The shadow justice secretary, Lord Falconer, plans to reintroduce a private member’s bill on the issue, which provides assistance for patients who have formed a “clear and settled intention” to end their life. It is highly unlikely to become law, however, without some kind of government support. 
 
 The full interview will be broadcast as part of one-off programme, Dara O’Briain meets Stephen Hawking, on BBC1 on 16 June. 
 

– The man who showed the world exactly why he was meant to live despite a devastating diagnosis 52 years ago now says he'd think about assisted suicide—but only under certain circumstances. In an interview set to be broadcast on BBC One in mid-June, Stephen Hawking says, "I would consider assisted suicide only if I were in great pain or felt I had nothing more to contribute but was just a burden to those around me," the Telegraph reports. "To keep someone alive against their wishes is the ultimate indignity." Hawking has spoken before about his support for assisted suicide, notably in a BBC interview last year in which he said, "We should not take away the freedom of the individual to choose to die" and admitted he had tried to kill himself once by not breathing after a tracheostomy ("the reflex to breathe was too strong," he noted). Assisted suicide is still illegal in the UK, though the Guardian notes the Department of Public Prosecutions wouldn't likely prosecute family or friends who helped a loved one end his or her life. But the world doesn't have to worry about losing Hawking just yet: The 73-year-old says he's not really in pain, just discomfort when he wants to adjust positions, the Telegraph notes. And he tells the program's interviewer that he's still got a lot to offer: "I am damned if I'm going to die before I have unraveled more of the universe," he says, per the Guardian. But the paper notes Hawking also advocates for euthanasia safeguards and has pointed out he thought he wanted to die in 1985 after a particularly brutal bout with pneumonia; his then-wife Jane wouldn't disconnect his life support. His best-selling A Brief History of Time came out three years later. (Competent patients in Canada can now seek a doctor to help them end their own lives.)