Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), known euphemistically to advocates as Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) or “Death with Dignity,” describes a practice where physicians prescribe, at a patient’s request, a lethal dose of drugs intended to end the life of the patient.
Last week, the Illinois state legislature passed a bill that legalizes physician-assisted suicide. The bill was delivered to Governor Pritzker’s desk and awaits his signature—or a veto.
Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) strongly condemns the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Illinois and urges Governor Pritzker to veto the bill. If you are a resident or student in Illinois, CWALAC needs your support to make sure he hears that message.
To voice your concern, submit your opinion to the Governor’s office: Voice An Opinion
See a sample comment here:
Governor Pritzker,
I urge you to veto SB 1950, with specific attention to the physician-assisted suicide amendment: “End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients.” Though physician-assisted suicide is framed by some as “death with dignity,” this legislation will disadvantage vulnerable, terminally ill Illinoisans.
Physician-assisted suicide violates patient trust and physician integrity, offends the innate dignity and equality of all human beings regardless of their physical or mental state, normalizes suicide, disincentivizes public and private investment in palliative care options, and gives rise to a slippery slope where physician-assisted suicide may become available to the general public (consider Colorado, where anorexic women commit physician-assisted suicide).
In a state where physician-assisted suicide becomes the norm, palliative care and dignified medical care at the end of life may become less common. Here, death loses dignity and gains a price tag.
Real death with dignity is 1) embracing human life until its natural end, 2) diligent pain management in terminal patients’ final days or hours, 3) ensuring every suffering person of their inherent worth and dignity despite a terminal diagnosis, and 4) high-quality palliative care. If you veto SB 1950, you have an opportunity to protect this dignity for Illinoisans.
Illinois must remain steadfast to the historic promises of the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors promise, “I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.”
To maintain real death with dignity for all Illinois residents, I urge you to veto SB 1950.
Governor Pritzker has 60 days to sign or veto SB 1950. As you express your concern and ask him to veto the bill, please pray that his heart, and the hearts of all Illinoisans, would be softened to defend the sanctity of human life in their state from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. Elderly and terminally ill men and women are not burdens to be disposed of. They are men and women created in the Image of God.
