Judge refuses to block Illinois assisted suicide law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A federal judge, on September 10, denied the request from disability rights advocates’ to block the Illinois assisted suicide law from going into effect on September 12.

Jeremy Gorner reported for the Chicago Tribune on September 10 that:

The ruling came in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year by two disabled patients, a doctor and several disability and patients’ rights organizations. They allege the state’s End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bars discrimination against people with disabilities; the Affordable Care Act, which regulates healthcare costs; and the plaintiffs’ equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

But in his 25-page decision, U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp rejected at least one of the plaintiffs’ arguments calling for a preliminary injunction to put the law on hold, disagreeing that doctors “will start inviting disabled patients to consider medical aid in dying” once the law takes effect.

On December 12, 2025 Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law. The Illinois assisted suicide law is scheduled to go into effect later this week, on September 12, 2026.

We reported on September 9 that Hannah Meisel reported for Capital News Illinois on September 8 that disability rights organizations, on September 5, petitioned a federal judge to block the implementation of the Illinois assisted suicide law based on how the law contravenes the Americans with Disabilities Act, and is discriminatory against disabled people, who are more susceptible to physician bias and therefore coercion to end their life.

Gorner also reported that Tharp questioned the standing of the plaintiffs in the case.

As referenced in Tharp’s decision, one of the plaintiffs — a quadriplegic woman named Ebony Payne who is paralyzed from the neck down and has repeatedly been in serious life-threatening situations in hospitals — contended that for disabled people the law “removes the legal and ethical obligation of doctors” to act solely as healers by allowing them to respond to requests about procedures related to medical aid in dying. But the judge argued the plaintiff has not shown that she is a “qualified patient” under the law. 

The judge also noted Payne did not explain “why she is necessarily harmed” by the law if she does not seek a medical-aid-in-dying method “or the physician is in any event unwilling to provide such assistance.”

The Illinois assisted suicide law will go into effect on September 12. Tharp gave the plaintiffs 30 days to appeal the decision.

Assisted suicide laws give medical professionals the right in law to prescribe lethal poison for the purpose of suicide. The Illinois assisted suicide law is designed to make it impossible to prosecute a medical professional who assists a suicide, even in the most egregious cases.

Illinois Judge considers blocking assisted suicide law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On December 12, 2025 we reported that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law. The Illinois assisted suicide law is scheduled to go into effect later this week, on September 12, 2026.

Hannah Meisel reported for Capital News Illinois on September 8 that disability rights organizations, on September 5, petitioned a federal judge to block the implementation of the Illinois assisted suicide law based on how the law contravenes the Americans with Disabilities Act, and is discriminatory against disabled people, who are more susceptible to physician bias and therefore coercion to end their lives.

Miesel reported that:

Thomas Geoghegan, who represents the disability rights groups, physician and disabled Illinoisans who brought the case, told U.S. District Judge John Tharp that the law upends the millennia-old tradition of the Hippocratic oath, a pledge doctors make to “first do no harm.” As a result, Geoghegan argued, EOLA will result in the “severe impairment” of the relationship a patient with disabilities has with his or her physician.

Miesel further reported that Geoghegan argued that:

“It’s our view, ultimately, this is authorizing a different standard of care,” he said.

Disability rights advocates fiercely opposed the two-year effort to pass the law, warning that physician bias in perceived quality of life may make doctors more inclined to encourage life-ending treatment over other options for people with disabilities.

Judge Sharp must decide if the Illinois assisted suicide law contravenes the Americans with Disabilities Act and is therefore discriminatory towards people with disabilities. Sharp said that he would make a decision before September 12.

On August 24, 2026 Molly Sweeney reported for WCIA news that Illinois agreed to a temporary order pausing assisted suicide law for certain hospitals and doctors.

On September 4, Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich and two orders of Catholic nuns launched a lawsuit seeking to block the Illinois assisted suicide law that is scheduled to to into effect on September 12, arguing that the law violates constitutional protections for free speech and religious freedom.

Temporary injunction protects conscience rights for some Illinois doctors.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Disability leaders opposing assisted suicide

On December 12, 2025 we reported that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law. The Illinois assisted suicide law is scheduled to go into effect on September 12, 2026.

On August 13, 2026 we reported that a group of Illinois physicians, a Catholic bishop and a faith-based nursing home filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law before it goes into effect.

On August 24, 2026 Molly Sweeney reported for WCIA news that Illinois agreed to a temporary order pausing assisted suicide law for certain hospitals and doctors. Sweeney wrote:

With the temporary injunction, Catholic hospitals under the authority of the Diocese of Springfield, the Lutheran Care Center in Altamont and the four Catholic doctors named in the lawsuit will not be required to comply with the new state law while similar cases are resolved in the appeals court.

The Thomas More Society, the legal group that took the case, stated in their Press Release on August 24 that:

In the near term, the order means that when the law takes effect on September 12, the named plaintiffs may keep serving their patients according to conscience. Illinois cannot force them to tout the alleged “benefits” of assisted suicide, refer patients to someone willing to prescribe lethal drugs, log those requests in a way that triggers the state’s suicide “qualification” process, avoid engaging in whatever the state decides is “misinformation” about suicide, or falsify death certificates to conceal how a patient died. Nor may the state pursue the penalties the law otherwise threatens for refusing: fines of up to $10,000 per violation, loss of licensure, and criminal prosecution.

Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society also stated that:

“We will not rest until Illinois’s immoral and coercive assisted suicide mandate is struck down for good, and every doctor and health care ministry in the state is free to heal without fear of the State’s deadly agenda,”

The decision was entered by U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama on August 21, 2026. (Link to the decision).

Lawsuit filed to prevent assisted suicide in Illinois.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

We reported on December 12, 2025 that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law. The Illinois assisted suicide law is scheduled to go into effect on September 12, 2026.

A group of Illinois physicians, a Catholic bishop and a faith-based nursing home filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law before it goes into effect.

John Clark reported for mystateline.com on August 12 that:

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, argues that the state’s End-of-Life Options Act violates constitutional protections for free speech, religious freedom and due process by requiring physicians and health care organizations that oppose assisted suicide to participate in the process against their beliefs.

Clark reports that the Illinois lawsuit is based on preventing assisted suicide and protecting freedom of speech, conscience rights and religious freedoms:

However, the new lawsuit argues that objecting physicians and institutions are still required to discuss what the law describes as end-of-life options, provide information or referrals to willing providers, and comply with other requirements that conflict with their religious beliefs and medical ethics.

The plaintiffs contend those provisions force them to endorse or facilitate actions they believe are morally wrong.

According to the complaint, the physicians object to informing patients about what the law characterizes as the benefits of medical aid in dying, referring patients to providers willing to participate, documenting certain requests in medical records, and complying with provisions governing death certificates.

Clark states that the lawsuit is seeking an injunction against the assisted suicide law. 

The suit asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction and permanent injunction blocking enforcement of those provisions before the law’s Sept. 12 effective date. Plaintiffs also seek declarations that portions of the law violate the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain federal health care statutes.

A similar lawsuit was filed in New York to prevent the implementation of their assisted suicide law. On July 31, 2026; The Beckett Fund reported that a temporary order was obtained preventing the state of New York from forcing Catholic Sisters and Catholic healthcare from participating in the assisted suicide law while the federal lawsuit by Catholic healthcare proceeds in the court.

The lawsuit instituted by the Beckett Fund has temporarily protected Catholic Healthcare from being forced to participate in assisted suicide but it has not achieved an injunction to prevent the New York assisted suicide from going into effect. 

On June 11, we reported that The Institute for Patients' Rights joined two federal lawsuits, one in New York and one in Illinois, with a coalition of national and state-based disability and patient advocacy organizations. For both states, Not Dead Yet, United Spinal Association, and the National Council on Independent Living, are organizational plaintiffs.

Lawsuits filed to overturn New York and Illinois assisted suicide laws

The Institute for Patients' Rights joined two federal lawsuits, one in New York and one in Illinois, with a coalition of national and state-based disability and patient advocacy organizations. For both states, Not Dead Yet, United Spinal Association, and the National Council on Independent Living, are organizational plaintiffs. 

For New York, other organizational plaintiffs include: Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley, Regional Center for Independent Living, and Self-Initiated Living Options, Inc. Two individuals are named plaintiffs as well, Anita Cameron and Jose Hernandez.

In Illinois, the individual plaintiffs are Ebony Payne, Pam Heavens, and Nooshig Luz Salvador. Joining them are additional organizational plaintiffs: Progress Center for Independent Living, and Chicago ADAPT.

Both lawsuits state assisted suicide law violates core protections under the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. 

The suit argues that the assisted suicide statutes in New York and in Illinois will single out people with disabilities and other vulnerable individuals, placing them at risk of premature death rather than ensuring access to care, support and suicide prevention services.

“Assisted suicide laws in New York and Illinois create a separate and unequal system in which people with life-threatening disabilities are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets,” said Matt Vallière, president/executive director of plaintiff organization Institute for Patients' Rights. “These legal actions are about affirming that every person has inestimable value and dignity, regardless of age, disability, or prognosis, and ensuring that no one is treated as disposable under the law.” 

José Hernández, an individual plaintiff for New York, a person with disabilities, and a member of plaintiff organization United Spinal Association, spoke about how America once cared about preserving lives and prioritizing treatment to extend life. His mother was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer when she was 28 years old and he was only eight. Doctors estimated she would live for only six months.

“At the time, assisted suicide was not available, and thankfully so,” Hernández said. “Doctors did everything they could, her insurance paid for life-saving treatment, and my mother survived for 13 years. If she had chosen to end her life, I would have missed out on 13 years of goodnight kisses, home-cooked meals, and the opportunity to be raised by a mother who made me the strong man I am today.”

Representing the Illinois plaintiffs, Ebony Payne said, “I joined the lawsuit because of personal experiences that brought me really close to death and the people who I leaned on to do the right thing became the people to do the opposite. The Illinois law is a trainwreck and is not what you expect from people who are obligated to do no harm.”

These are the 4th and 5th lawsuits in the federal court system. These lawsuits put us one step closer to the Supreme Court and total victory over a eugenic public policy that undermines the inestimable value and dignity of each one of us. Onward and upward!

Pope Leo urged Illinois Governor Pritzker to veto the assisted suicide bill.

Governor Pritzger meeting Pope Leo XIV

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On December 12, 2025 I reported that Governor JB Pritzger signed assisted suicide Bill SB 9 into law. This was a tragic decision that will result in many deaths and change medical ethics in Illinois by giving doctors the right in law to prescribe poison to their patients.

In the article I stated that it was possible that Governor Pritzker delayed signing the assisted suicide bill because he was scheduled to meet the Pope on November 19.

CNA reported on December 23 that Pope Leo stated that he had urged Governor Pritzger to veto the assisted suicide bill during their meeting. According to the CNA report:

Pope Leo XIV appealed to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to veto a bill legalizing assisted suicide during a Vatican meeting last month, the pope told reporters Tuesday.

The pope, responding to a question from Rudolf Gehrig of EWTN News, said he made his opposition to the bill clear in the November conversation with the governor.

The Illinois assisted suicide law will go into effect on September 12, 2026.

The original assisted suicide bill was designed to pass in the legislature. Once assisted suicide becomes legal, the assisted suicide lobby will work to expand the law and  incremental extensions will follow.

Assisted suicide was legalized in three US states in 2025. Are you concerned?

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2025, assisted suicide was legalized in Delaware, Illinois and New York. This means that there are now 13 US states plus Washington DC that permit assisted suicide. The 13 states include California, Illinois and New York, three of the six most populated states in America.

This is tragic and will result in many early deaths and will lead to the further medical abandonment of people in need.

Previous to this year, the last state that legalized assisted suicide was New Mexico in 2021.

Are you concerned? I am concerned.

I watched the recent online US assisted suicide lobby political meeting. During the meeting the assisted suicide lobby outlined that, in 2026, there will be at least 18 states with bills to legalize assisted suicide. 

We are very concerning with some of the listed states which included: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada and Virginia. There are other states that the assisted suicide lobby are focusing on that are less likely to legalize assisted suicide in 2026 including (but not limited to) Arizona and Florida.

Our allies have been very successful in the past few years but the issue seems to be changing How are we to respond?

Let's look at the most recent successful campaign. 

The Slovenian people voted on an assisted suicide referendum on Sunday, November 23, 2025 and voted to overturn the assisted suicide bill that was passed in the Slovenian legislature in July 2025. More than 53.5% of the voters rejected the assisted suicide law.

This was a great victory, that was accomplished by a small group of committed citizens who stuck to their talking points. They achieved the victory for people who are sick, people with disabilities and pensioners against all odds, as they were up against the government and a well funded death lobby.

Slovenia is not the United States, but the principles in the successful campaign will transport to North America.

They weren't afraid to call it what it is. They used the term poisoning. Assisted suicide is to provide a lethal concoction to poison a person to death. 

The never used the language of the other side. The other side continuously lied about what the assisted suicide law said or what assisted suicide is. The campaign focused on telling the truth and challenging the lies.

They called assisted suicide, health care reform. Most jurisdictions require health care reform to enable a more equitable provision of care. Assisted suicide poisons a person to death. Dead people don't need health care.

The called assisted suicide pension reform. Slovenia, like most jurisdictions, invest a significant portion of their budget into the pension system. Assisted suicide poisons a person to death. Dead people don't collect pensions.

Proper medical care. The other side focused on suffering. The campaign opposing assisted suicide talked about proper care, and explained that assisted suicide forces people, who cannot attain proper medical care, to be poisoned to death.

The Slovenian campaign was more aggressive than most campaigns, but they won even though they were massively out-spent.

The take-away from the Slovenian referendum is that people innately oppose killing people, but you must be willing to state what assisted suicide is. The Slovenians built their campaign on a few key talking points and stuck to them. Hiding behind nice language or presenting the issue in a way that seems more socially acceptable avoids the reality that assisted suicide is about killing people by poison.

I am not afraid to say that I oppose killing people.

Lessons from Illinois legalizing assisted suicide.

Gordon Friesen

Gordon Friesen
President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law on December 12, 2025. The law will go into effect on September 12, 2026.

I spent a day in the distasteful task of pouring through new medical homicide legislation from the State of Illinois, to see what the citizens of that State may now expect, and to find lessons for others.

Illinois has done nothing new with eligibility and process. The common limits of terminal condition, self-ingestion, and state-residency have all been maintained.

However, any relief felt on that account would be misplaced. For this new law is no less sinister for its familiarity.

Indeed, it is a great error to think only of the scope of choice allowed to those who seek death. We must also (and even more urgently) consider what has been taken from those who wish to live.

To be perfectly clear: the only way for patients to enjoy real medical care, is for institutions to exclude medical homicide. But institutions in Illinois will no longer be able to do that.

We can forget public institutions, of course. For these will all become MAID-compliant. But worse still, not even private institutions are now effectively able to protect their patients.

For it is not enough to forbid the actual practice of medical homicide. It is also necessary to recruit and maintain teams of truly life-affirming professionals. And that is where the problem lies.

Illinois law, is typical in this regard. It allows institutions to prevent their employees from practicing medical homicide, but only on their own premises, and only while working within the terms of their employment. Nor can these be prevented from contracting with patients, privately, to act outside of those bounds.

Furthermore, nothing whatever can prevent death-biased professionals from raising the subject of medical homicide, under pretext of presenting all treatment options, according to accepted standards of care respecting informed consent.

In other words, an institution may prohibit the actual practice of medical homicide on-site. But it cannot stop its employees from marketing that service to patients, nor even from contracting with them to provide that service off-campus.

Also, in a specially perverse twist: Illinois statutes harshly condemn "coercion and undue influence", but does so equally, in regard to both steering people towards medical homicide, and attempting to steer them away.

Finally, this effective ban on traditional medicine is made functionally universal, by a definition of regulated "health care entities" which includes every conceivable form of hospital, clinic, long-term care, palliative care, hospice, home-care or nursing service.

Taken all together, we see that no patient, might ever reliably find any place, in the State of Illinois, where they might not be harassed --in their most vulnerable moments-- by doctors (and nurses) who are fully committed (and sordidly attracted) to the satisfaction of killing people.

But even if such a patient were to find the care of a real Hippocratic doctor, that doctor's hands would still be tied from fear of being disciplined (or sued) for "undue" influence in attempting to help patients to continue living.

This then is the lesson for other States considering similar legislation:

Libertarians beware! Death-medicine and Life-medicine are mutually exclusive. Medical homicide is not about providing a choice of death for some. It is about taking real medical care away, from all. 

Previous articles by Gordon Friesen (Articles Link).

Illinois Governor Pritzker signs assisted suicide bill giving doctors the right to poison patients to death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Pritzger signing a bill.

I have terrible dark news.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law. The law will go into effect on September 12, 2026.

Thank you to the many people who lobbied and shared their stories with the hope of preventing the legalization of assisted suicide. Your promotion of caring but not killing people will not be forgotten.

Let me be clear, legalizing assisted suicide is about poisoning people to death.

Assisted suicide Bill SB9 passed on April 9, 2025 by a vote of 8 to 3 in the Senate Executive Committee. SB9 stalled but restarted when the sponsor gutted the Sanitary Food Preparation Act (SB 1950) and replaced it with the assisted suicide bill. 

It is ironic that a bill that enables physicians to prescribe lethal poison to kill patients was attached to a food preparation safety bill.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will work to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill was designed to pass in the legislature. Once passed incremental extensions will follow.

It is possible that Pritzker only delayed signing the bill because he was scheduled to meet the Pope.

We will not stop working to prevent the killing of people at the most vulnerable time of their life.

Call Illinois Governor Pritzker. Urge him to veto assisted suicide Bill SB 1950

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker

John Clark reported for WTVO news that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has received assisted suicide Bill SB 1950 and has until January 24, 2026 to either sign the bill, veto the bill or allow it to become law without a signature. Clark reported:

Pritzker has not committed to signing the bill. Speaking in Chicago on Wednesday, he described the issue as “hard” and emphasized compassion and careful consideration. He acknowledged hearing passionate arguments on both sides and shared personal anecdotes about friends who faced end-of-life decisions in other states.

“I don’t want anybody to think that making up your mind about this is very easy. It’s not. I think there’s a lot to consider, but most of all, it’s about compassion,” Pritzker said.

Olivia Olander reported for the Chicago Tribune on November 3 that Governor JB Pritzker has not yet decided if he will sign or veto the recently passed assisted suicide bill. Olander reported:

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday said he was still deciding whether he’d sign legislation that would permit doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives, after the bill narrowly passed the General Assembly last week.

“It was something that I didn’t expect and didn’t know it was going to be voted on, so we’re examining it even now,” Pritzker said.

We need everyone to call Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at 312-814-2121 or 312-814-2122 and tell him to veto assisted suicide bill SB 1950. Some talking points include:

• Legalizing assisted suicide gives doctors the right in law to be involved with causing the death of their patients at the most vulnerable time of one's life.
• Assisted suicide is not about freedom or choice but is a form of cultural and medical abandonment, people need care not death.
• A caring culture supports good end of life care and opposes assisting suicides.
• Suicide is always a tragedy. Legalizing assisted suicide enables other people to be directly involved with the suicide act.
  

It is important to remind the Governor that the disability community opposes assisted suicide. Legalizing assisted suicide provides death rather than living with dignity. If you have a personal story, please share it.

Assisted suicide Bill SB9 passed on April 9, 2025 by a vote of 8 to 3 in the Senate Executive Committee. SB9 stalled but restarted when the sponsor gutted the Sanitary Food Preparation Act (SB 1950) and replaced it with the assisted suicide bill. It is ironic that a bill that enables physicians to prescribe lethal poison to kill patients was attached to a food preparation safety bill.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will work to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill was designed to pass in the legislature. Once passed incremental extensions will follow.

Call Illinois Governor Pritzker. Tell him to veto assisted suicide bill SB 1950

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker

Olivia Olander reported for the Chicago Tribune on November 3 that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has not yet decided if he will sign or veto the recently passed assisted suicide bill. Olander reported:

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday said he was still deciding whether he’d sign legislation that would permit doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives, after the bill narrowly passed the General Assembly last week.

“It was something that I didn’t expect and didn’t know it was going to be voted on, so we’re examining it even now,” Pritzker said.

We need everyone to call Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at 312-814-2121 or 312-814-2122 and tell him to veto assisted suicide bill SB 1950. Some talking points include:

• Legalizing assisted suicide gives doctors the right in law to be involved with causing the death of their patients at the most vulnerable time of one's life.
• Assisted suicide is not about freedom or choice but is a form of cultural and medical abandonment, people need care not death.
• A caring culture supports good end of life care and opposes assisting suicides.
• Suicide is always a tragedy. Legalizing assisted suicide enables other people to be directly involved with the suicide act.
  

If you have a personal story, please share it. It is important to remind the Governor that the disability community opposes assisted suicide because legalizing assisted suicide provides death rather than living with dignity.

Olander further reported that: 

Speaking to reporters at an unrelated event at the Philip J. Rock Center and School in Glen Ellyn for deaf-blind children, Pritzker signaled an openness to the advocates’ arguments but was noncommittal about signing the legislation into law. 

Assisted suicide Bill SB9 passed on April 9, 2025 by a vote of 8 to 3 in the Senate Executive Committee. SB9 stalled but was renewed when the sponsor gutted the Sanitary Food Preparation Act (SB 1950) and replaced the language with the assisted suicide bill. It is ironic that a bill that enables physicians to prescribe lethal poison cocktails to kill patients was attached to a food preparation safety bill.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will work to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill is designed to pass in the legislature. Once passed incremental extensions will follow.

Bad News: Illinois Senate passes assisted suicide bill SB 1950.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have bad news: Illinois Senate Bill (SB) 1950 passed in the Illinois Senate by a vote of 30 to 27 in the final session of the Senate. On May 29, 2025 SB 1950 passed in the Illinois House by a vote of 63 to 42.

We need everyone to call Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at 312-814-2121 or 312-814-2122 and tell him to veto assisted suicide bill SB 1950.

When searching on the internet SB 1950 causes confusion because it comes up as the Sanitary Food Preparation Act.

This year, assisted suicide Bill SB9 passed on April 9, 2025 by a vote of 8 to 3 in the Senate Executive Committee. Bill SB9 stalled but was renewed when it's sponsor gutted the Sanitary Food Preparation Act (SB 1950) and inserted the language of the assisted suicide bill. It is ironic that a bill that enables physicians to prescribe lethal poison cocktails to kill patients was attached to a food preparation safety bill.

We need everyone to call Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at 312-814-2121 or 312-814-2122 and tell him to veto assisted suicide bill SB 1950. Some talking points:

• Legalizing assisted suicide gives doctors the right in law to be involved with causing the death of their patients at the most vulnerable time of one's life.
• Assisted suicide is not about freedom or choice but is a form of cultural and medical abandonment, people need care not death.
• A caring culture supports good end of life care and opposes assisting suicides. 

If you have a personal story, please share it. It is important to remind the Governor that the disability community opposes assisted suicide because legalizing assisted suicide provides death rather than living with dignity.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will lobby or launch court cases to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill is designed to pass in the legislature, once passed incremental extensions will follow.

The push to legalize and extend assisted suicide in America

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

EPC is very concerned with the threat to legalize assisted suicide in the states of Illinois and New York and the expansion of assisted suicide laws, where it is already legal.

In New York, assisted suicide Bill A136/S138 passed in the New York Assembly by a vote of 81 to 67 on April 29 and may soon be debated in the state Senate. We have urged supporters to contact the members of the New York State Senate and in particular the New York State Senate Health Committee (Link to Senate Health Committee).

In Illinois, assisted suicide Bill SB9 passed on April 9, 2025 by a vote of 8 to 3 in the Senate Executive Committee. Bill SB9 stalled but was renewed when it's sponsor attached the assisted suicide bill to a food preparation safety bill (SB 1950).

On May 29, 2025 SB 1950 passed in the State House by a vote of 63 to 42.

The good news is that SB 1950 has temporarily stalled as the Illinois Senate adjourned.

It is ironic that a bill whereby physicians prescribe a lethal poison cocktails to kill patients would get attached to a food preparation safety bill.

Oregon's assisted suicide expansion Bill SB 1003 will be heard in committee next week. Oregon assisted suicide Bill SB 1003:

1. Requires promotion by Healthcare facilities – The bill forces hospices and hospitals to publicly disclose whether they participate in assisted suicide. Hospices must tell patients upfront and post their policies online, while other healthcare facilities must at least post their stance online. In some cases, family members have pressured vulnerable patients to participate in assisted suicide. This disclosure requirement makes it easier for patients to be directed toward facilities that will not object.
2. Removes the 15-day waiting period – The current waiting period in Oregon to provides a proper evaluation prior to prescribing lethal poison drugs. The bill removes this waiting period allowing patients to be shuffled to death on demand within 48 hours.

The assisted suicide lobby has expanded existing assisted suicide legislation in nearly every state that has legalized assisted suicide. 

Oregon has already allowed physicians to wave the waiting period and Oregon has eliminated the residency requirement. Vermont is permitting assisted suicide by telehealth, they are forcing medical practitioners who oppose assisted suicide to refer patients and they eliminated the residency requirement. Washington state, California, Colorado and Hawaii have also expanded their assisted suicide laws.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will lobby or launch court cases to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill is designed to pass in the legislature, once passed incremental extensions will follow.

Three states, three challenges. Delaware, Illinois, Nevada

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The states of Delaware, Illinois and Nevada require your immediate attention.

Delaware passed assisted suicide bill HB 140 in the House and the Senate.

Governor Matt Meyer

Delaware Governor Matt Meyer must veto assisted suicide bill HB 140. Last year Delaware Governor John Carney vetoed the assisted suicide bill after it passed. 

Contact Governor Meyer and urge him to prevent killing with a veto of assisted suicide Bill HB 140. Contact Delaware Governor Matt Meyer (Contact Link).

llinois assisted suicide bill SB9 passed in the Senate Executive Committee and will soon be debated in the full Senate. We need everyone to contact Illinois Senators and urge them to prevent the killing of Illinois citizens by defeating Bill SB9. Some talking points are below.

Contact the members of the Illinois Senate (Senate Contact List)

Governor Lombardo

In 2023, the Nevada House and Senate passed an assisted suicide bill. Thankfully Governor Joe Lombardo vetoed the bill.

In 2025, the Nevada House and Senate passed assisted suicide Bill AB 246. Recently Governor Lombardo stated that he would veto the bill (Link).

Send a message to Governor Lombardo reminding him to veto assisted suicide bill AB 246 at (this link) or send your message by Twitter at: @JosephMLombardo or call him at: (775) 684-5670.

When contacting Delaware Governor Matt Meyer or the Illinois State Senators use some of these talking points:

• Legalizing assisted suicide gives doctors the right in law to be involved with causing the death of their patients at the most vulnerable time of their lives.
• Assisted suicide is not about freedom or choice but it is a form of cultural and medical abandonment.
• A caring culture supports good end of life care and opposes assisting suicides. 

If you have a personal story, please share it. It is important to remind elected representatives that the disability community opposes assisted suicide because legalizing assisted suicide devalues their lives.

The assisted suicide lobby has expanded existing assisted suicide legislation in nearly every state, once legal. Oregon eliminated their reflection period and has eliminated their residency requirement. Vermont is permitting assisted suicide by telehealth, they are forcing medical practitioners who oppose assisted suicide to refer patients to death and they have eliminated their residency requirement. Washington state, California, Colorado and Hawaii have also expanded their assisted suicide laws.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will lobby or launch court cases to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill is designed to pass in the legislature, once passed incremental extentions will follow.

Illinois assisted suicide bill is dangerous for people with disabilities.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Jules Good

Sela Estille reported for 25newsnow.com on March 5, 2025 that  Illinois assisted suicide Bill SB 9 received strong push-back from the disability community. Estille reported:

In a press conference on Wednesday morning, disability advocates such as the nonprofit Access Living called this idea “dangerous” to people living with chronic illness.

“I cannot overstate how dangerous this is,” said Jules Good, a spokesperson with the Stop Assisted Suicide Coalition.

“When I was at my lowest, if a doctor told me I could end this all, I would have. It’s only through years, compassionate support, and therapy and support that I’m able to stand here today and say I’m in recovery,” Good continued.

Senate Bill 9, that is sponsored by Senator Linda Holmes of Aurora was pulled from Committee debate on March 5 to enable amendments to the bill.

The Illinois General Assembly may try to legalize assisted suicide next week.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Action Alert: 

The Illinois General Assembly may attempt to legalize assisted suicide during next week's Lame Duck session. 

The bill would be similar to SB 3499, a bill that was filed by Senator Linda Holmes in February 2024. This is not the first time that the assisted suicide lobby has tried to pass killer legislation during a Lame Duck or even Special Session. That is how assisted suicide was legalized in California in 2015.

Find your Illinois elected officials by clicking HERE.

Illinois elected representatives will have been told that SB 3499 is a tightly worded bill.

Most assisted suicide bills are written with specific "safeguard" language designed to sell support for assisted suicide among legislators. This is a bait and switch tactic to legalize assisted suicide and then expand the law later.

The reality is that nearly every State that has legalized assisted suicide has later expanded the law. Assisted suicide bills, such as in Illinois, must be defeated.

You don't want Illinois doctors to become killers.

We believe in Caring Not Killing.

Doctor comments on the Illinois assisted suicide proposal.

The following Letter to the Editor was published on April 20, 2024 by The News Gazette.

As a physician, I would like to share my perspective on physician-assisted suicide.

While I agree with common concerns like abuse, misdiagnosis, medication issues and lack of safeguards, I want to focus on another aspect, especially from an emergency physician’s standpoint.

With over three decades of practicing emergency medicine, I have encountered numerous patients at the end of their lives. In emergency medicine, our aim is to cure whenever possible, but above all, to provide care. Sometimes, this entails accompanying patients and their loved ones on their journey towards the inevitable end of life.

Reflecting on physician-assisted suicide, it is impossible to ignore that facilitating a patient’s death contradicts the fundamental principles of medical care, upheld from antiquity to modern medical science. It is disconcerting to see physicians suggesting or providing a direct pathway to end a patient’s life, thus neglecting their duty of care, even towards those with terminal conditions.

Physicians advocating for physician-assisted suicide lack coherence in their justifications, citing reasons such as “dying with dignity” or alleviating suffering by ending life.

Instead of delving into comprehensive approaches to pain management, addressing social support deficiencies, or exploring the psychological, spiritual and emotional aspects of patients’ suffering, they advocate for the ultimate shortcut — facilitating death as the solution.

Redirecting resources from initiatives for physician-assisted suicide toward research for better end-of-life care, enhancing mental-health resources and optimizing pain management would better serve patients and society.

We must reconsider this tragic deviation from our responsibility as healers and stewards of health care.

Dr. GREGORY TUDOR
Peoria

 

Illinois Assisted Suicide Bill SB 3499 is a more permissive bill.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have recently written how most of the assisted suicide bills are "bait and switch" bills, meaning, they are intentionally written in a "tighter" manner with the intention of passing the bill and expanding it later.

Illinois Assisted Suicide Bill SB 3499 is not a "tightly" worded bill, but even the provisions in the bill, once legalized, will soon be pushed for further expansion.

Almost all assisted suicide bills have employed a 15-day waiting period. SB 3499 has a 5-day waiting period that can be waived if the assessor considers the person to be nearing death.

Almost all assisted suicide bills require that a person be a resident of the State. Bill SB 3499 also requires that a person be a resident of Illinois, but the bill then has 11 statutes explaining how a person can establish themselves as being an Illinois resident. It doesn't take very long to obtain an Illinois drivers license.

The typical concerns with assisted suicide bills remain part of Bill SB 3499. For instance, a person with questionable competency may be referred for a mental health capacity test, but the licensed mental health professional only needs to determine if the person is mentally capable. A person can be determined to be mentally capable and at the same time be depressed and feeling hopeless.

The assisted suicide lobby claims that no slippery slope exists, yet, in the past few years existing assisted suicide laws have been expanded by: reducing or eliminating waiting periods, allowing non-doctors to participate in assisted suicide, allowing assisted suicide approvals by tele-health, expanding the meaning of terminal illness and removing state residency requirements.

Assisted suicide law expansion bills have been passed in California (2021), Hawai'i (2023), Oregon (2019, 2023), Vermont (2022, 2023) and Washington State (2023).

Illinois needs to reject assisted suicide Bill SB 3499 and commit to a caring culture.

More resource articles on this topic:

• The assisted suicide lobby wants to legalize assisted suicide in your state (Link)
• The Nationalization of assisted suicide in America (Link).
• Minnesota assisted suicide bill is lethally deceptive (Link). 
• EPC - USA statement to the New York legislature (Link).
• The assisted suicide lobby pass restrictive bills and expand them later (Link).