Cerundolo: Let HB 254 Die A Natural Death

By Aida Cerundolo, NH Journal

HB 254 is tabled and should be allowed to die a natural death – just like every citizen of New Hampshire. This legislation, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide, allows doctors to assign value to a human life – a dangerous precedent that compromises the ethical foundation of medicine.

History is littered with examples of doctors stepping outside of their role as healers to become arbitrators of human worth. In the twentieth century, American physicians carried out forced sterilizations on the so-called “feeble-minded” – patients deemed too intellectually inferior to procreate. This eugenics policy was so audacious it even earned praise from Adolf Hitler.

HB 254 similarly assigns value to the lives of patients with a predicted life expectancy of six months or less, determining whether they qualify for physician-assisted suicide. But while we all have a life expectancy, no one – not even a doctor – knows exactly what it is. Physicians may estimate how long someone will live based on medical conditions, but they are often wrong. DJ Daniel, the now famous thirteen-year-old boy honored at President Trump’s recent joint address to Congress, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018 and given at most five months to live. He has since outlived his predicted life expectancy over fourteen times.

Even if doctors could precisely predict someone’s life expectancy, that number is not proportional to the value of their life. If a life is deemed short enough to justify its termination, it’s not a far leap to start weighing worth based on physical capability, intellect or socioeconomic status.

A doctor’s mission is to heal and comfort – not to measure a patient’s value. Doing the latter contradicts the very heart of the medical vocation. The oath to “do no harm” applies to all patients, not just those fortunate enough to be free from terminal illness. Preserving the integrity of medicine means valuing all lives equally – without conditions.

As an emergency medicine physician, this issue hits close to home. ER doctors routinely detain suicidal patients against their will for mandatory psychiatric evaluations, with the full support of New Hampshire law. Many of these patients have endured immense psychological trauma, struggle with life-shattering addictions, or suffer from debilitating mental illness. Yet we do not affirm their desire to end their lives – we fight to save and comfort them. Because every human life is precious.

It is impossible to conclude that the suffering of a suicidal patient held for evaluation is somehow less than that of a terminally ill patient. Making this arbitrary distinction, as HB 254 does, opens the door to expanding physician-assisted suicide to anyone experiencing hardship.

Doctors must not stray from their core mission: to support the health and comfort of every patient – terminally ill or not. By codifying physician-assisted suicide, HB 254 not only contradicts existing laws protecting suicidal individuals, but it also jeopardizes the ethical integrity of medicine in New Hampshire.

Let HB 254 remain on the table. Let it die a natural death. Do not resuscitate it.

Dr. Aida Cerundolo resides in New Hampshire and has been practicing emergency medicine for over twenty years. She wrote this for NHJournal.com.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.