Legislature sets stage for Illinois to become a 'right-to-die' state as bill narrowly passes

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois stands to become the next state that would permit doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives after the controversial measure cleared its final legislative hurdle early Friday in a narrow state Senate vote in which opponents questioned the bill’s morality and one said it could bring “a culture of death” to the state.

The bill will go to Gov. JB Pritzker, who will have to decide whether to sign it into law. If he does, the legislation would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults the right to access life-ending prescription medication. The governor’s office did not return a request for comment about whether Pritzker backs the legislation.

If signed by Pritzker, Illinois would join at least 10 other states, among them Oregon, California, Colorado and Hawaii, as well as Washington, D.C., in allowing medical aid in dying. The legislation received support from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and Compassion and Choices Action Network.

“This is a choice. If you are opposed to it, whether the reason is moral, religious, you just don’t like the idea, fine. I would never tell you you should choose this option,” state Sen. Linda Holmes, a Democrat from Aurora and the main Senate sponsor of the legislation, said during floor debate. “What I’m saying is ‘why? Why?’ If I am facing an illness where I am going to die in pain, do you think you should tell me I don’t have the option to alleviate that pain?”

The legislation was passed by a 30-27 margin in the Senate on Friday, five months after the bill barely passed the House 63-42, just three votes more than the minimum required for bills to pass by a simple majority.

Opponents, including disability rights activists and the Catholic church, said allowing terminally ill people to get help ending their lives could lead to discrimination, coercion and abuse. Some medical practitioners also opposed the measure. In a statement, the Catholic Conference of Illinois asked Pritzker to veto the bill.

“With all the assaults on human dignity and the growing number of vulnerable people we see every day, sadly the leaders and members of the General Assembly who voted for this offer us suicide as its response,” the statement read.

“The bill now goes to the Governor, and we ask him not only to veto this bill in totality, but also to address humanely the reasons why some view assisted suicide as their only option and to heed the impact of similar legislation on other states and nations.”

Debates over the bill in the House and Senate got emotional at times as lawmakers on both sides talked about their own experiences with death, either among family members or other people they know.

State Sen. Chris Balkema, a Republican from Channahon, detailed how both his parents died in hospice care. He said they became comfortable up to their deaths after being given a morphine pain reliever. While he thinks the medical aid in dying legislation is meant to curtail suffering, he cited reasons he didn’t support the bill, including not feeling confident there were strong enough guardrails regarding the use of the end-of-life medication.

“It’s not right to introduce a culture of death into Illinois,” said Balkema. “We have never had this before. We’ve never had a situation where we are giving people an option to choose their life. We all, and 59 of us in this room, are compassionate. We care and we want to preserve life the best as possible. This is going in the wrong direction.”

Republican state Sen. Jil Tracy of Quincy also decried the legislation while the issue was debated on the Senate floor, echoing Balkema’s sentiments about whether the bill’s safeguards in issuing the medication were sufficient, while also raising concerns made by disability advocates that the legislation could be harmful to intellectually and developmentally disabled people.

Tracy said she feared those individuals could be “coerced or driven to use assisted suicide as a way to alleviate this population.”

The legislation outlines a deliberate process for someone who is terminally ill to be able to receive life-ending medication.

According to the bill, an eligible patient “may orally request a prescription for medication” from their attending physician and it must be documented. The patient must also request the medication in writing to their physician after making the oral request. But the patient must also make a second oral request five days after the initial one.

The written request for the medication must also be witnessed by two people, “who attest that to the best of their knowledge” the patient is acting voluntarily and is mentally sound, according to the bill, which also lists various limitations as to who can act as witnesses.

“At the time the patient makes the second oral request, the attending physician shall offer the patient an opportunity to rescind the request,” the legislation states. “Oral and written requests for aid in dying may be made only by the patient and shall not be made by the patient’s surrogate decision-maker, health care proxy, health care agent, attorney-in-fact for health care, guardian, nor via advance health care directive.”

An attending physician must also “provide sufficient information to a patient regarding all appropriate end-of-life care options,” including comfort care, hospice care, palliative care and pain control, as well as the foreseeable risks and benefits of each.

During floor debate, state Sen. Adriane Johnson, a Democrat from Buffalo Grove, spoke in support of the bill, reading and paraphrasing a letter from the mother of a man who chose to end his life through medical aid in dying after he was sick with cancer.

Johnson said the letter details how the man ingested medication to end his life and his family was with him when he died peacefully in California — where the method of dying is legal.

“His mom goes on to say that it was bittersweet and that (in) his last days he died peacefully because of the option of medical aid in dying in California, where he lived,” said Johnson.

“Dignity in dying is about ensuring individuals have a peaceful and humane end-of-life experience that respects their autonomy, comfort and sense of self,” she said.

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