Stephen Hawking backs assisted dying bill

Professor Stephen Hawking has backed Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying Bill which is set to be debated in the House of Lords 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.

Fergus Walsh reports.