To Live and Die (With Dignity) in Illinois

On September 12, Illinois will join a dozen other states plus the District of Columbia in legally permitting “medical aid in dying.” The End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (rolls right off the tongue), also known as Deb’s Law (there we go), will allow certain terminal patients to legally end their own lives with some professional help. But don’t call it “doctor-assisted suicide” — proponents will have a fit. Listen, I get it: No one wants to picture a loved one in this situation. Nevertheless, here’s what you need to know, which you can then tuck away in the back of your mind, hopefully forever.

The terms of participation

Deb’s Law — named for the face of the Death With Dignity movement in Illinois, Deb Robertson, a social worker who spent years caring for patients in this situation — resembles similar laws passed in Oregon, Vermont, and elsewhere. (Illinois is the first in the Midwest.) To be eligible, one must be a terminally ill adult with a prognosis of six months or less to live, as documented by two doctors; mentally capable of making one’s own health care decisions; and physically capable of self-administering the ingestible end-of-life medication. On the flip side, physicians can opt out of helping. Even entire medical groups, hospice centers, and hospital systems can bar participation.

The existential debate

Advocates have long argued that the right to decide when to die gives control, autonomy, and dignity back to patients. In addition to avoiding the pain and suffering that come with a dragged-out death, some patients would rather leave what remains of their nest egg to their loved ones, rather than fork it over for end-of-life care. How lovely — that was on my Darkest Shit Imaginable bingo card! The arguments against this law often boil down to discomfort over “playing God.” There’s a theological discourse to be had here: What is God’s will? Whose God, exactly? And who’s to say putting someone on a ventilator isn’t also playing God? I can tell you with 100 percent certainty where my junior-year Catholic Ethics teacher would land on the topic. Good thing we don’t have a Christo-fascist Supreme Court waiting in the wings to contort the U.S. Constitution to its arcane religious whims! Oh.

The legal challenge

Because of course there’s already a lawsuit. The challenge in federal court claims Deb’s Law creates a discriminatory health care system that pushes people with disabilities into suicide. Behind this effort is a coalition of disability advocates and orgs funded by conservative Christian groups that condemn MAID on theocratic, so-called right-to-life grounds. Similar suits filed in Delaware, Colorado, and California were dismissed outright. So why keep trying? Perhaps to get the law in front of the current Supreme Court — the same crew of disproportionately Catholic justices who shredded Roe v. Wade. From them, we could expect a well-reasoned ruling that — (checks notes) oops, misread that! — a decision based on whatever is politically expedient at the moment.

Grace Perry is a freelance writer for Chicago magazine.