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Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
“The request which arises from the human heart in the supreme confrontation with suffering and death, especially when faced with the temptation to give up in utter desperation, is above all a request for companionship, sympathy and support in the time of trial. It is a plea for help to keep on hoping when all human hope fails.”
~ John Paul II, The Gospel of Life or Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, no. 67.
HB 1283 Update
The latest on the campaign to stop state-sanctioned suicide
We have some excellent news to report this week. On Wednesday, May 1, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 3-2 to recommend to the full Senate that HB 1283 be sent to Interim Study. If the full Senate adopts that motion, HB 1283 will be defeated. Thanks to Senate President Jeb Bradley, Committee Chair Regina Birdsell, and Committee Vice-Chair Kevin Avard for their vote and for the eloquent and impassioned remarks each one of them made explaining their deep opposition to this bill.
The bill will be voted on by the full Senate on May 16. If you have not yet done so, please call, write or email your state senator and ask them to vote against passing HB 1283. To find out who your senator is, go here:
The New Hampshire State Senate
Thank you.
In order to help defeat this bill, the Diocese is working alongside the NH Coalition for Suicide Prevention, a diverse group that includes health care providers, veterans, and people with disabilities and their advocates. The Church teaches that suicide is always a tragedy and that a caring community should respond with hospice and palliative care to better meet the needs of those facing the end of life.
Physician-assisted suicide, a form of euthanasia, is a grave moral evil that is directly contrary to the infinite dignity of each human life. Proposed as a so-called “compassionate” alternative to those suffering from terminal illness or disability, physician-assisted suicide is, in reality, the very opposite of compassion and exploits the vulnerability of those suffering in these circumstances. Instead of receiving the medical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual support they deserve and need in the face of this suffering, those in these situations are abandoned to hopelessness and fear with assisted suicide appearing as the only legitimate alternative.
The fear of suffering, the fear of being a burden to family and friends, and the fear of isolation that so often come with illness must be met with genuine Christian charity and hope and not the indifference of assisted suicide. Doctors and medical professionals, moreover, have a duty to do no harm to those in their care, a duty that is directly violated in prescribing lethal drugs to those in a state of tremendous vulnerability.
The values of autonomy and usefulness are not defining of the human person, and the value of human life transcends one’s ability to be independent or “productive” in society and must be protected from any threat. Respect for human life does not mean a requirement to undergo treatment that is burdensome or unlikely to be successful, nor does it mean the rejection of palliative care to manage pain: what it does mean, however, is true, authentic compassion, a “suffering-with” and accompaniment in love with those in the face of suffering and death.
Testimony:
HB 1283 Assisted Suicide - February 7, 2024
HB 1659 Assisted Suicide - February 3, 2020
Resources:
St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life or Evangelium vitae (March 25, 1995), especially nos. 64-67
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Euthanasia, May 5, 1980
