Springfield | Gov. J.B. Pritzker seemed surprised by passage of an assisted suicide bill for terminally ill patients when pressed by a group of reporters this week. “I’m looking at it, Pritzker said in Chicago Monday. “It was something that I didn’t expect and didn’t know was going to be voted on, so we’re examining it, even now.”
The act was passed by the state senate in the early morning hours on Friday, October 31, the final day of the veto session. It was attached to a bill regulating food sanitation, a move that an opposition group Patients Rights Action Fund indicated was underhanded.
“Legalizing assisted suicide disguised as a sanitation bill undermines long-standing efforts in suicide prevention and could dangerously shift the standard of care in health care facilities,” a PRAF statement said. The group urged Pritzker to explore additional treatments for mental health, hospice, and palliative care instead of legalizing suicide.
If signed by the governor, the act would apply to terminally ill patients in the last six months of their lives. “Our work doesn’t end here,” said PRAF special projects coordinator Barbara Lyons, “and all our voices will be needed to prevent further movement.”
Pro-life advocates thought the bill had been killed earlier in this legislative session, when it failed to get senate support after passing the house. But SB 1950 was brought in through a side door, and passed 30-27 with two senators not voting.
Mary Kate Zander of Illinois Right to Life urged prayer in response to passage of the bill, with objections to be addressed to Pritzker. “We cannot give up yet,” Zander said. “There is still time to defeat this horrible bill.”
Illinois Family Institute Director David Smith called on Christians in Illinois to pray for God’s intervention. He also provided a QR code to simplify registering objections with the governor’s office.
Meanwhile, Pritzker is thinking about it. “Look, I know how terrible it is that someone in the last six months of their life can be experiencing terrible pain and anguish and I know people who have gone through that,” Pritzker said. “…It hits me deeply and makes me wonder about how we can alleviate the pain that they’re going through.”
The bill was named for Debra Robertson, a Lombard woman who has terminal cancer and has advocated for a right to die on her own terms for years.
If signed by the governor, it would be nine months until the bill would take effect.
–with additional reporting from WLFD Chicago