Legislature passes ‘medical aid in dying’ bill that governor says he
will review
[November 06, 2025]
By Maggie Dougherty
CHICAGO — Terminally ill adults in Illinois may have the option to take
life-ending medication prescribed by a physician under a bill passed by
the Illinois legislature last week during its fall session.
Advocates for the bill say it is rooted in compassion and will bring
agency to already dying people in the last stages of life, while
opponents cite religious concerns and potential harm to vulnerable
populations.
The Senate voted 30-27 to pass Senate Bill 1950 in the early morning
hours on Oct. 31 after the House passed it 63-42 in May. The legislation
needs only the governor’s signature to become law and, if signed, would
take effect after nine months.
The bill received support from advocates like Suzy Flack, formerly of
Chicago, who has pushed for the legislation in honor of her son Andrew,
34 at the time of his death from cancer in 2022. Andrew chose to live in
California and utilize the state’s medical aid in dying options, which
were not available in Illinois at the time. He is one of several
advocates named in the bill text.
“Inevitably, losing a child is the hardest thing that anyone could go
through, I believe,” Flack said. “I am just comforted every day by the
way his death was so peaceful. He had some control over things.”
What’s in the bill?
The bill sets specific requirements for eligibility to receive
end-of-life medication. Patients must be Illinois residents 18 or older
who have a terminal disease that is determined by two physicians to
result in death within six months.
A diagnosis of major depressive disorder does not alone qualify patients
for end-of-life medication.
Patients requesting treatment must make both oral and written requests
for aid in dying. A physician would then need to evaluate the patient’s
mental capacity and evaluate potential sources of coercion or undue
influence and inform the patient of alternative hospice care and pain
control options before writing a prescription for life-ending
medication.
Those who qualify must be able to self-administer the medication, as no
one else is permitted to administer it to them. Patients who qualify and
receive medication have the right to withdraw their request at any time
or choose not to ingest the medication.
Death certificates of those who take end-of-life medication under the
bill will attribute their cause of death to the underlying terminal
disease, not suicide.
Bill sponsor Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, said on the Senate floor that there
are “over 20 guardrails in place” to prevent coercion and abuse,
pointing to Oregon’s 28-year history of providing medical aid in dying
care.
“In the years that this has been in effect in Oregon, starting in 1997,
there have been no substantiated cases of coercion or abuse,” Holmes
said.
Including Oregon, 10 states and the District of Columbia have legalized
medical aid in dying. Illinois would be the first Midwestern state to do
so.
Guardrails explained
Critics of the bill felt there were not enough safeguards in place to
prevent harm. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, raised concern about the six-month
diagnosis window, saying that advancements in modern medicine can allow
people to outlive their diagnoses.
Holmes said this is not common, as doctors tend to overestimate
patients’ prognosis.
“There aren’t that many patients that outlive what that prognosis ends
up being,” Holmes said. “Those that do are very likely not to take the
medication until they get to a point where the pain has gotten so bad.”
Only 62% of patients prescribed the medication end up taking it, Holmes
added.
Tracy and other senators additionally voiced concerns about potent
drugs, which patients would bring into their homes to self-administer,
falling into the hands of young people struggling with mental health.
“There’s no controls over who might access it besides the patient,”
Tracy said. “In this day and age, we have young children that have
suicidal thoughts.”
Brian McCurdy, who began advocating for medical aid in dying after the
death of his life partner Harriet, said the bill doesn’t introduce any
risk that is not already there.
“Right now, there’s very little control over the medication, the
morphine, that’s being given to hospice patients in a home setting,”
McCurdy said. “So, I don’t think this legislation creates more
opportunities for bad things to happen.”
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State Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, speaks on the Senate floor in May
2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)
After someone dies in hospice, the medication is collected by a hospice
nurse or other medical provider. McCurdy said he expected the same to be
true for planned deaths under this bill.
Tracy also raised concerns about coercion of disabled or elderly
populations, particularly that the bill did not prevent heirs from
acting as one of the two witnesses required to sign the patient’s
request for end-of-life medication.
Impact on physicians, culture
Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, quoted studies finding very high
rates of death by suicide among veterinarians, in part due to the toll
of euthanizing animals. McClure likened veterinarians to physicians who
care for humans, suggesting the provision of end-of-life care would
create a mental health crisis among medical professionals.
The American Medical Association has long opposed the practice of
physician-assisted aid in dying, calling it “fundamentally incompatible
with the physician’s role as healer” and stating that it would pose
“serious societal risks.”
The bill does not require physicians to prescribe end-of-life medication
and protects physicians from civil or criminal liability and
professional discipline for either prescribing or refusing to prescribe
aid-in-dying care.
“One of the things I love about the legislation that we’ve passed in
Illinois is that it’s not going to require anybody who’s in opposition
to be involved,” McCurdy said. “Not patients, not family, not doctors,
not pharmacists. Nobody who doesn’t want to be involved is going to have
to be involved.”
Sen. Chris Balkema, R-Channahon, called the bill “a slippery slope” and
pointed to other states expanding options for medical aid in dying after
what was initially introduced, including Oregon removing its residency
requirement.
“It’s not right to introduce a culture of death into Illinois,” Balkema
said.
Advocates of the bill said it is not introducing a culture of death but
rather giving agency to those who are already actively dying.
“I don’t like the term assisted suicide, I feel that is very insulting
because people with terminal illness want to live,” Suzy Flack said of
her son Andrew. “He fought for many years; he wanted desperately to
live.”
Balkema spoke from his experience witnessing both of his parents die in
hospice in the past three years. Both were at peace with their deaths,
Balkema said, and both said they were ready to go “when the Lord wants
to take me.”
“Those are hard words to hear but also comforting to know that we are
not in control,” Balkema said.
But advocates of the bill say having that control is crucial.
Compassion, not suicide
Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, thanked legislators for a heartfelt
discussion on medical aid in dying.
“This is a very personal issue and it’s an issue that is about choice,”
Fine said. “This is not suicide, it is compassion.”
Having the option to control his passing, even if he did not ultimately
need it, was something that Flack says brought her son peace of mind.
“He was so comforted by having that option,” Flack said.
Flack said she hoped Gov. JB Pritzker would sign the bill to provide
agency to people like her son.
When asked about the bill at a news conference in Glen Ellyn on Monday,
Pritzker said he was reviewing the specifics of the legislation.
“I know how terrible it is that someone who’s in the last six months of
their life could be experiencing terrible pain and anguish. And I know
people who’ve gone through that,” Pritzker said. “It hits me deeply and
makes me wonder about, you know, how we can alleviate the pain that
they’re going through?”
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