Chicago | A federal court on Friday, Aug. 21, temporarily blocked the State of Illinois from enforcing its physician-assisted suicide law against the plaintiffs who filed suit in federal court. The order will remain in place while the court considers the plaintiffs’ request for preliminary relief.
The lawsuit, filed by the Thomas More Society, seeks to block the End-of-Life Options for the Terminally Ill Act, also known as Deb’s Law, before it takes effect Saturday, Sept. 12. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, the Lutheran Care Center in Altamont, and four Catholic physicians.
Plaintiff Dr. Mary Keen Kirchoff told the Thomas More Society, “This means I can go back to focusing on caring for my patients instead of wondering whether staying true to who I am is going to cost me my career.”
She continued, “For months I’ve faced the real possibility that I could lose my license, be fined, or even face criminal charges simply for refusing to promote or refer patients toward death.”
The law states physicians must list the cause of death as the underlying terminal illness, not suicide.
To meet the law’s standards, patients must be at least 18, mentally capable of making their own medical decisions, and diagnosed with a terminal illness expected to result in death within six months. Patients would self-administer the prescribed medication.
The penalties for physicians failing to comply with the law include fines of up to $10,000, license revocation, and criminal prosecution.
The suit names the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health and the secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation as defendants.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed the bill into law in December 2025.