diff --git a/config/ax_code_coverage.m4 b/config/ax_code_coverage.m4
index 6484f0332..4417d4444 100644
--- a/config/ax_code_coverage.m4
+++ b/config/ax_code_coverage.m4
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([AX_CODE_COVERAGE],[
 
 		dnl Build the code coverage flags
 		dnl Define CODE_COVERAGE_LDFLAGS for backwards compatibility
-		CODE_COVERAGE_CPPFLAGS="-DNDEBUG"
+		CODE_COVERAGE_CPPFLAGS=""
 		CODE_COVERAGE_CFLAGS="-O0 -g -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage"
 		CODE_COVERAGE_CXXFLAGS="-O0 -g -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage"
 		CODE_COVERAGE_LIBS="-lgcov"