Stephen Hawking: Right To Die Via Assisted Dying Should Be Legal For Disabled

For Stephen Hawking, right to die decisions need to be in the hands of disable, although some may be shocked by Stephen Hawking’s assisted suicide stance.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Stephen Hawking almost died in 1985 from assisted dying.

Stephen Hawking was suffering from such a severe case of pneumonia that doctors offered to “unplug” him from his life support:

“The doctors thought I was so far gone that they offered Jane [the option] to turn off the machine.”

Fortunately for Stephen Hawking, assisted dying was not in the cards for his then-wife Jane Hawking, who had Stephen Hawking flown back to England. The treatment saved Stephen Hawking’s life but robbed him of his voice, which is why he relies on computer synthesized voices to speak.

Stephen Hawking’s assisted suicide position might have changed over the years as he’s dealt with the trials forced onto him by his lifelong fight with ALS. At one point, Stephen Hawking said, “Because every day could be my last, I have a desire to make the most of every single minute.”

In 2006, Stephen Hawking once called physician assisted dying a “great mistake”:

“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.”

But now Stephen Hawking says the disabled should be able to consider assisted suicide without the fear of prosecution:

“We don’t let animals suffer, so why humans? There must be safeguards 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.”

Do you agree with Stephen Hawking’s right to die opinion that assisted dying should be legal?