MENTAL HEALTH
The Granite State finds itself at a crossroads with the introduction of HB 1283, new legislation that seeks to legalize physician-assisted suicide. The bill effectively gives physicians permission to prescribe drugs that result in patient suicide. We have serious concerns about the bill’s potential impact on New Hampshire’s at-risk population if this bill passes.
New Hampshire has seen a nearly 50% increase in suicide rates over the past decade. Rather than addressing this with compassion and enhanced prevention efforts, HB 1283 takes us in the wrong direction by normalizing suicide as an acceptable medical option. It sends a message that suicide can be a legitimate treatment choice, contradicting the very core of our efforts to prevent suicide.
It opens the door to expanding assisted suicide to other vulnerable populations. In other states nearly every assisted suicide law has been expanded by reducing or eliminating the waiting periods, allowing non-doctors to participate in assisted suicide, allowing assisted suicide approvals by telehealth, expanding the meaning of terminal illness and removing the state residency requirement.
HB 1283 raises ethical questions about the value we place on individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses. By endorsing physician-assisted suicide, we risk sending a message that some lives are not worth living. Instead of offering support and compassion through palliative care and other essential services, this bill proposes a dangerous alternative that devalues the inherent worth of those facing health challenges.
In contrast to the well-established principles of the medical profession, HB 1283, if passed, would turn physicians into enablers of suicide, undermining the sacred trust within the doctor-patient relationship. It will degrade public trust in health care, which has already fallen during the pandemic.
We cannot not ignore the recent legislative strides made in New Hampshire to bolster suicide prevention efforts. Instead of offering death through laws like HB 1283, let us continue to work toward build a “help-seeking” culture, that offers support and care for those most vulnerable and at-risk for suicide.
Steven Wade is a member of the New Hampshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention.
