Illinois is poised to become the 12th U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients after the state Senate passed a bill to permit the practice early Friday morning.
The bill, SB 1950, is chiefly a food preparation sanitation measure, but state House Democrats added a physician-assisted suicide amendment after a stand-alone bill on the controversial practice stalled in the legislature earlier this year.
Now, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) will have 60 days to decide whether to sign or veto the bill before it automatically becomes law.
The measure, called the “End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients,” allows a patient to be prescribed and to self-administer life-ending pharmaceutical products if they are diagnosed to have less than six months left to live.
Oregon was the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, called “medical aid in dying” by proponents, in 1994. Delaware became the most recent state to legalize the practice in May.
Advocates of physician-assisted suicide argue legalization gives the option to terminally ill patients to “decrease fears and the feeling of powerlessness,” according to the advocacy organization Compassion and Choices.
A survey conducted earlier this year by Compassion and Choices alongside WebMD found that 58% of Illinois physicians supported legalized physician-assisted suicide, and nearly 2 in 5 physicians said they would be willing to write a prescription for life-ending medication for qualifying patients.
The anti-assisted suicide group Patients Rights Action Fund issued a press release early Friday morning calling on Pritzker to veto the legislation.
“We encourage lawmakers to instead prioritize expanding access to mental health services, hospice care, and palliative support,” the patient rights advocacy organization said. “Every patient deserves compassionate care and a full spectrum of options to live with dignity. The passage of SB 1950 introducing the use of lethal drugs in Illinois compromises that fundamental right.”
The legislation has been sharply opposed by Catholic religious leaders in Illinois since it passed the House in May.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, issued a statement on the bill recalling how his father, who died of what Cupich described as a “debilitating illness,” was “kept comfortable and was cherished until his natural death.”
Cupich called on legislators to explore solutions that “honor the dignity of human life and provide compassionate care to those experiencing life-ending illness” instead of suicide.
The archbishop also highlighted that physician-assisted suicide normalizes the practice “as a solution to life’s challenges” in a culture that already struggles with mental health, especially for young people.
HERE ARE THE STATES THAT HAVE OR ARE CONSIDERING PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with over 49,000 suicide deaths in 2023, or one every 11 minutes. It’s the second leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults.
Mental health research indicates that people who lose a family member to suicide are at a three times higher risk of dying by suicide themselves. Wives and husbands who lose their spouse to suicide are at a five times higher risk of dying by suicide within two years.
