Possible Upcoming Legislation

Physician Assisted Suicide in Illinois

Consideration of legislation that would allow a medical professional the ability to allow a person to end one’s life is both a profound and emotional question. Many fear suffering, or have seen loved ones suffer, and never want to experience such pain. However, we have a moral responsibility to point out why assisted suicide is a bad idea and the individual and societal consequences of allowing the practice of assisted suicide.


What is Assisted Suicide?

For states where legal, Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) allows terminally ill patients who meet specific qualifications to end their lives through voluntary self-administration of a lethal dose of medications prescribed by a physician for that purpose. Most laws provide that PAS cannot be done in public and, as such, occurs in a person’s home. In 2024 in Oregon, the time between ingestion of pills and death was anywhere from 7 minutes to 26 hours, with the median range being 53 minutes. Currently, there are 10 states + DC that have legalized Assisted Suicide, with Delaware’s law taking effect January 1, 2026 and New York’s Governor deciding whether to sign or veto its passed legislation this fall.


Role of Insurance Companies 

In states where PAS is legal, insurance companies have denied lifesaving treatments and have instead offered the patient a prescription for assisted suicide medication. It becomes cheaper to kill you than cure you. For those most on the margins – the disabled community, the poor and marginalized – opposed assisted suicide. Often they do not have quality insurance coverage or coverage at all. And with federal Medicaid cuts coming there will be even more uninsured.
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What is the incentive for an insurance company to keep someone from slipping into a terminal condition so they could be eligible to end their life thus ending the insurance company’s obligation to pay for costly procedures? With assisted suicide, the incentives are all in the wrong place.


Coercion

In states where PAS is legal, examples exist of people being coerced into taking these pills. Under this legislation, drugs can be picked up at a pharmacy or sent in the mail. No one is required to be present when the person wishes to end one’s life. What if the person requesting changes their mind, yet another person in the home wants the sick person dead? There is no oversight to ensure improper things cannot happen. Truth is – no legislation can prevent such things from happening – another reason why this is a bad idea.


Look at What is Happening in Other Places Where it is Legal – Europe and Canada

Proponents talk about the safeguards in this bill, but in places where this has passed, the safeguards become barriers to more people ending their lives. Proponents will come back year after year to expand eligibility and make it easier to end one’s life. Even though lawmakers will say that this is only for those with limited time to live, other states and countries prove that to be false overtime. Examples now exist where it is now possible to end one’s life for depression, anorexia, or homelessness. We cannot give up on our brothers and sisters like this.

In Canada, due to a flurry of court decisions, legislation, and guidelines enacted over a short amount of time, Canada has went from euthanasia eligibility in 2014 for those who are dying at the “end of life” only in Quebec, to nationwide eligibility for those whose death is “reasonably foreseeable” in 2016, to combining euthanasia and organ donation in 2019, to expansion in 2021 to those who death is not “reasonable foreseeable” and for those with mental illness (to be implemented in 2027), and to expanding eligibility in Quebec for those with serious physical disability, “mature minors” and infants with severe disabilities in 2023. For a 7-year period, the death toll in Canada went from 1,108 deaths in 2016 to 15,343 deaths in 2023 (assisted suicide and euthanasia).


It's Not About Suffering – it’s about our inability to truly care for one another

Oregon law requires those requesting PAS to be asked why they want to end their lives. In 2024, the top five reasons were: 1) losing autonomy; 2) less ability to engage in activities making life enjoyable; 3) loss of dignity; 4) losing control of bodily functions; and 5) becoming a burden on their friends/families. Inadequate pain control or concern comes in at 6th. Hence, predicating the passage of PAS on alleviating pain and suffering is simply not true, which is the main reason proponents claim is why legalization is necessary.

Palliative Care is a specialized form of care that provides symptom relief, comfort and support to people living with serious or chronic illnesses. It also provides support to caregivers and those impacted by a loved one’s condition. Unlike hospice — which people often associate with end-of-life care — palliative care can benefit people of any age and at any stage of a serious illness. Illinois has a shortage of quality palliative care and hospice providers that can address suffering. If the state truly wants to address suffering, it needs to address the shortage of palliative care and hospice care throughout Illinois.


Suicide Contagion

Assisted suicide creates a suicide contagion. Once something is legalized, it becomes normalized. Data from Oregon shows that suicide rates did increase. A recent CDC report stated that suicide is now the 10th cause of death in the United States, overcoming COVID-19 for that spot. Illinois recently enacted a 9-8-8 hotline for people considering suicide and mandated both K-12 and college student IDs to have this information on it. There are programs funded help veterans combat suicide and other worthwhile mental health programming. Instead of offering a helping had to those in need, do not let Illinois go in reverse and give the green light to any kind of suicide.

According to the American Medical Association. “Assisted suicide in fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.”


People with Disabilities Fear Assisted Suicide Due to Coercion and Abuse

There is no realistic way of protecting a person from a mistake, coercion, or abuse. Any doctor could prescribe a lethal dose and any person could administer that dose, with medical confidentiality covering that action. No independent witness is required to be present at the time of death. Therefore, there is no way to know if this was voluntary.

We can do better for people than offering them a prescription for death. The Bishops of Illinois state that is our duty to walk with people during their times of suffering and stress. The compassionate answer is not a handful of pills, but human connection and willingness to suffer with our fellow man.