From Oath to Atrocity: When Refusing Anesthesia Becomes Mengele-Style Medicine

A Florida Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist named Erik Baylor Martindale recently posted on his public Facebook page: "I will not perform anesthesia for any surgeries or procedures for MAGA." He called it his personal right and even an "ethical oath." Screenshots spread like wildfire, drawing tens of thousands of shares and furious calls to the Florida Board of Nursing and Governor Ron DeSantis to revoke his license immediately.

This isn't a harmless opinion. Refusing to administer anesthesia during surgery or invasive procedures means condemning a patient to excruciating, unbearable pain—pain that can cause shock, organ failure, psychological trauma, or death. It's not "opting out" of a controversial procedure; it's choosing to inflict torture-level suffering on someone already under the knife, solely because of their political beliefs. That crosses from unprofessional into something far darker: the deliberate weaponization of medical power to punish ideological "enemies."

Medical ethics demand impartiality. The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics requires nurses to provide care "with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person," explicitly rejecting discrimination based on any characteristic—including politics. The Hippocratic tradition boils down to "first, do no harm." Florida law reinforces this: The Nurse Practice Act prohibits conduct that endangers patient welfare or shows unprofessional behavior. Refusing pain relief over politics violates every one of these standards. It's not conscience; it's cruelty disguised as principle.

The implications are terrifying. Imagine lying on an operating table, sedated just enough to be helpless but fully aware of every cut, every burn, every violation of your body—because the person controlling the gas decided your vote makes you unworthy of mercy. This isn't hypothetical; it's what Martindale openly pledged. If allowed to stand, it sets a precedent: Healthcare providers could start screening patients by party, religion, race, or any "undesirable" trait. Pain becomes a political tool. Healing becomes selective vengeance.

I've seen this mindset before. In Chicago years ago, a doctor refused to treat Jewish patients outright—denying them care based on identity during a time when antisemitism was rising. That wasn't isolated; history is littered with examples where medicine turned partisan or genocidal. The most infamous is Josef Mengele and other Nazi physicians who conducted unanesthetized experiments on prisoners, withholding relief to serve ideological "science" or racial purity. They justified atrocities by redefining "ethics" to exclude certain humans. The parallel isn't in scale—yet—but in the underlying logic: Some people don't deserve the full measure of care because of who they are or what they believe.

We're not at Auschwitz, but the slope is slippery. When a licensed professional publicly declares they'll let patients suffer for political reasons, it normalizes bias in the one place society needs neutrality most—the operating room, the ER, the clinic. If this trend continues, healthcare devolves into tribal warfare: One side refuses "MAGA," the next refuses "progressives" or "immigrants" or "the unvaccinated." Patients hide their views to get treatment. Distrust skyrockets. Lives are lost not to disease, but to ideology.

Humanity can't survive that. Medicine has always been one of the last refuges where people set aside differences to preserve life and ease suffering. When that refuge falls—when providers start playing judge with scalpels and syringes—we lose something irreplaceable. All hope dims if we allow political litmus tests to decide who feels pain and who doesn't.

The Florida Board of Nursing must investigate swiftly and act decisively. Revoke the license if the facts hold. Send a clear message: Politics has no place in deciding who gets anesthesia, pain relief, or basic human care. Anything less invites more division, more suffering, and a future where the OR becomes another battlefield in endless culture wars.

We deserve better. We must demand better—before it's too late.