LONDON, June 5 — Stephen Hawking said he would consider ending his life through assisted suicide, but only if he had “nothing more to contribute.”
The Guardian reported that the physicist had made his sentiments known in an interview that will air on the BBC.
“To keep someone alive against their wishes is the ultimate indignity,” Hawking said, before adding he would only consider ending his life if he were becoming a burden on those around him.
He said, however, that he doesn’t think that day is coming anytime soon.
“I am damned if I’m going to die before I have unravelled more of the universe,” he said.
Hawking was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease when he was 21, and has been confined to a wheelchair for decades.
He communicates with the help of a speech synthesizer.
