Last Friday Gov. Pritzker signed into law SB1950, the Illinois End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act that allows “mentally capable, terminally ill adults (6 months or less to live) to request physician-prescribed medication to end their suffering.”

The response to the bill by local groups leading up to the signing has been intensely emotional.

In a recent letter to Gov. Pritzker, Jonathan Barton, a community organizer with the Progress Center for Independent Living on Madison Street in Forest Park, wrote, “Veto the physician-assisted suicide bill SB1950. Independent Living Liberation Is Not Optional, It’s Survival! It reminds us [the disability community] of an American ethic which is Life , Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Now think about that just for a moment. It’s not Death, Pity, and the Glorification of Eugenics.”

A week ago Clark Craig, who until recently worked as an advocate for the Progress Center, issued a call to action which read [in part], “On Thursday, Dec. 11 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. please join me in attending a very urgent Assisted Suicide Protest/Die-in Vigil at the Governor’s Office. The governor is threatening to sign SB 1950 into law, which would legalize assisted suicide in Illinois, thereby presenting extreme danger to people with disabilities who face bias and unequal treatment in the medical system.”

Craig noted that Progress Center advocates quickly mobilized and joined other advocates sending some of the 700+ total letters that have been sent to the governor “opposing the legalization of assisted suicide.”

Tiffany Johson is a professional death doula (providing non-medical, holistic support to individuals and families during the dying process) and the action team leader for the Oak Park End of Life Options Group (OPELOG). She and other members of OPELOG have been lobbying the legislature in Springfield to pass the bill and then for the governor to sign it.

“Accuracy matters,” she said in an interview with GCM. “Illinois did not legalize euthanasia or ‘assisted suicide.’ The new law, also known as Deb’s Law, establishes medical aid in dying (MAID) for a narrow group of terminally ill, mentally capable adults. By statute, the medication must be self-administered by the patient; no one else may administer it.

“The law also states that deaths under the act are attributed to the underlying terminal illness and are not classified as suicide or homicide on the death certificate.

“It does not apply to people who are disabled but not terminally ill, and the law explicitly says no one qualifies solely because of age, disability, or a mental health condition. Eligibility requires two clinicians, documented decision-making capacity, multiple requests, informed discussion of hospice and palliative care, and the right to withdraw at any time; there are penalties for coercion and strong conscience protections for clinicians and institutions.”

Johnson concluded, “We can hold two truths at once, protect vulnerable people and also allow dying adults — under strict safeguards — to decide how to meet suffering at the very end of life. That’s the balance Deb’s Law tries to strike, and that’s why I support it.”

On Dec. 10, Marty Colchamiro, an Oak Park resident, wrote a letter to the governor urging him to sign the bill, saying, “For me, this issue is one of human rights. For those facing a difficult final chapter in their lives, this bill gives them options of medical aid in dying. There are so many safeguards within the legislation that was passed that make it impossible to abuse the intent of this bill.

“Please support the legislators who have tirelessly researched the pros and cons and then voted to pass medical aid in dying and send it to your desk for signature.”

Marty uses the term “medical aid in dying” instead of “physician-assisted suicide.”

The website LEGISCAN summarizes SB1950 this way: “Authorizes a qualified patient with a terminal disease to request that a physician prescribe aid-in-dying medication that will allow the patient to end the patient’s life in a peaceful manner.”

Key Provisions of SB 1950:

Eligibility: Illinois residents 18+, with a terminal illness confirmed by two physicians to cause death within six months.

Process: Requires documented proof of mental capacity and both oral and written requests for aid-in-dying medication.

Physician’s role: Physicians can prescribe medication, but the patient self-administers it.

On Oct. 10, the Catholic Conference of Bishops issued the following statement: “With the passage of legislation to legalize assisted suicide in Illinois, the Illinois General Assembly has put our state on a slippery path that jeopardizes the well-being of the poor and marginalized, especially those in the disability community and have foreseeable tragic consequences.

Key Catholic objections & arguments:

Sanctity of Life: The Church teaches that life is sacred from conception to natural death, making intentionally ending a life, even a suffering one, morally unacceptable.

Physician’s role: It goes against the traditional role of physicians.

Better alternatives: The focus should be on improving palliative and hospice care.

The bishops agree with the disabilities community in that the law puts people with disabilities at risk of abuse. 

Protection of the vulnerable: “Opponents fear coercion and abuse, especially for the elderly, disabled, and marginalized, who might feel pressured into choosing death over life.”

The fear is based on historical precedent, according to a statement from the National Disability Rights Network:

“The thought of doctors and parents, together, deciding to remove the body parts and stunt the growth of a child based on assumptions about their awareness and quality of life is shocking and disgusting. In one case that stunningly illustrates the assumptions made about these “burdensome” people, a jury in Oregon awarded parents $3 million because their child was born with Down syndrome after pre-natal testing failed to identify the disability. It was called a wrongful birth.”

Supporters of SB1950 focus on consensual adults who are able to articulate their wishes for the end of life and have the means to put them in writing in a way that will stand up in court. Tiffany Johnson said, “Eligibility requires two clinicians, documented decision-making capacity, multiple requests, informed discussion of hospice and palliative care, and the right to withdraw at any time;

Opponents, in the words of the Catholic bishops, “fear coercion and abuse, especially for the elderly, disabled, and marginalized, who might feel pressured into choosing death over life.”