Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

Re:Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease by gerggerg on Thursday January 05, 2012 @10:32AM (#3429014)

If you hate to do it than whats the point? The dude may have the care and the luck to keep him alive but he's also continued to produce jaw dropping work without being able to move much more than his eye balls. He can't eat or defecate or walk or wave or even make facial expressions but has contributed relentlessly to cosmology, theoretical physics, and the education thereof.

Regardless of the reasons why he is surviving, he deserves to survive like everyone else. And in the face of the most possible adversity has made the universe a different place to humans and turned countless individuals into skyward dreamers.

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Re:Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease by giberson on Thursday January 05, 2012 @11:54AM (#3429370)

I was in no way indicating he doesn't deserve to survive or that he hasn't made invaluable contributions to science.

>If you hate to do it than whats the point?

Mainly my post is counter weighting others that mostly attribute Hawking's longevity as a testimony to will power. It's also subtly defamatory to the relationship of money and health--in that (perhaps unavoidably so) having money greatly enhances one's life expectancy in the face of mortal diseases. That's not to say wealth is a golden ticket that affords you a reprieve from any illness but it certainly helps to prevent you from being lumped in with all the "average" cases, to be one of the uncommon cases that "defies" the usual outcomes.

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