Aid-in-dying bill stalls in Illinois Senate after lengthy House debate
[June 04, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Aid-in-dying legislation remains at the Illinois
Statehouse after it failed to clear the Illinois Senate before
legislators adjourned for the summer.
Lawmakers spent well over an hour on the House floor last week
discussing an amended version of Senate Bill 1950, which was initially
introduced as “sanitary food preparation” legislation.
SB 1950 took language from Senate Bill 9, or the End-of-Life Options for
Terminally-Ill Patients Act, which was introduced by state Sen. Linda
Holmes, D-Aurora. Legislators previously spent time debating SB 9 in
committee.
House members voted in favor of SB 1950 last Thursday, but senators did
not take up the measure before the spring legislative session ended over
the weekend.
SB 1950 provided that doctors could prescribe death-inducing drugs to
qualified patients with terminal diseases upon the patient’s request.
State Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, was chief House sponsor of the
amended Senate legislation.
“The law includes multiple protections to prevent coercion, including
strict eligibility requirements, two separate physician assessments and
mandatory counseling on all treatment options. The law makes it a felony
to coerce someone to request the medication or to forge a request,”
Gabel said.
State Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, a practicing physician, said he
objected to assisted suicide legislation being called a sanitary food
preparation bill.
“Vote no. Or don’t vote at all. It’s the first time a physician will
recommend you go out and take a smoke break,” Hauter said.
Hauter said assisting patients in killing themselves would violate an
ancient oath doctors take to “first do no harm.”
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Illinois state Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, debates on the House
Floor, May 30, 2025
BlueRoomStream
Sixty-three House members voted in favor of the bill, 42 voted
against and two voted present.
State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, said legalizing assisted suicide
would open a Pandora’s box.
“It tells our most vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled, those
battling despair that their lives are expendable,” Miller said.
Holmes has proposed aid-in-dying bills each of the last two years.
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, co-sponsored SB 1950. Cassidy
was one of several legislators who cited stories and messages from
constituents.
“We need the equity to be able to choose that option where we live.
This bill doesn’t lessen anyone’s control or rob anyone of choice
over our lives or at the point when our lives reach an inevitable,
unavoidable end that no treatment can improve or reverse. This bill
strengthens our control,” Cassidy said.
Cardinal Blaise Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago asked why
lawmakers would normalize suicide as a solution to life’s
challenges.
“While the bill sets parameters for assisted suicide, the data from
places where assisted suicide is available are clear. Rates of all
suicide went up after the passage of such legislation,” Cupich said
in a statement.
Kevin Bessler contributed to this story.
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