New Illinois assisted suicide law goes into effect Sept. 12

On Sept. 12, assisted suicide will be available for Illinois adults who have less than six months to live, after Gov. JB Pritzker signed the “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act” into law on Dec. 12, 2025, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

To help answer people’s questions about the new law and what the church teaches about death and dying, the Catholic Conference of Illinois, at the request of the state’s bishops, has released the online resource “Compassion + Care, Now and at the Hour of Our Death.”

“Under the law, an eligible person must be at least 18 years old, an Illinois resident and determined to have the mental capacity to make medical decisions,” the conference explains in “Compassion + Care, Now and at the Hour of Our Death.” “The terminal diagnosis and prognosis must be confirmed by two physicians. The patient must personally make both oral and written requests for the medication; the request cannot be made by a family member, guardian, health care proxy or through an advance directive to help Catholics with questions surrounding assisted suicide and what the Catholic Church teaches.”

The bishops in Illinois are concerned that the state is on a slippery slope to eliminate protections for people at the end of their lives. This has occurred in other states and countries that have legalized assisted suicide, said Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois.

Canada started with a similar law to Illinois, for example.

“Now, Canada’s in a situation where so many people are availing themselves of these assisted suicide/euthanasia laws that they have a problem on their hands. People are deciding to end their life if they have mental illness, if they don’t have a place to live, if they don’t have enough to eat,” Gilligan said. “We can’t become that. So, I think what the bishops are trying to do is at least start a conversation about what this law could mean.”

For years, the bishops and the Catholic Conference of Illinois spoke out at hearings, in public and in Chicago Catholic about the perils of legalizing assisted suicide as bills for it were introduced in the state legislature.

One of the many cautions they raised was that insurance companies could decide to withhold or deny treatment to a patient with a serious or terminal illness because it is cheaper to dispense drugs that will end their life.

Another concern is that a person can easily be coerced into taking the drugs even if they change their minds, Gilligan noted, adding that the medical provider’s role ends once the prescription is written.

“It’s just rife with a lot of problems and unfortunately, the General Assembly wasn’t very interested in trying to put more safeguards in,” he said. “We tried, but they weren’t.”

The fact that society is telling people they are a burden when they are ill is another problem, said Auxiliary Bishop Larry Sullivan, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“One of the things we have to really remember is that we are not a burden to family and to friends,” the bishop said. “In many ways, we are a blessing. Unfortunately, our society, our culture is telling people, ‘You don’t want to be a burden.’”

Catholics believe that we should not deprive others of the opportunity to give back to us when we need it, he said. 

“People who have spent their entire lives helping others and have felt really good about helping others are now thinking that they’re a burden, when in fact others will have the opportunity to feel good about helping them,” Bishop Sullivan said.

It is difficult to see a loved one suffering because of disease and poor health. Added to that is the culture telling people suffering is pointless and should be avoided at all costs, he said.

“None of us want to see someone suffering, but at the same time, suffering is a part of life,” Bishop Sullivan said. “There is redemptive value to suffering.”

He also worries that assisted suicide will divide family members making decisions for a loved one’s care, if that person does not have an advance directive or did not make their decisions clear prior to falling ill.

“I do feel that this is going to be the cause of a lot of division among some families,” Bishop Sullivan said.

Now, too, priests could be called in to administer last rites for someone only to learn when they arrive that the person is preparing to end their life. 

“It’s going to put the priest in an awkward position because you cannot forgive a sin that has not yet been committed,” he said. “We don’t want people to think that we are giving permission for something that we don’t have the right or the ability to give permission for. But in a pastoral sense, that could be seen as cruel. I’m not looking to deprive anybody of the sacraments. What I’m saying is that the priests will now have to go in there with a litany of questions that they are forced to ask that puts all parties in a terrible bind.”

With the law going into effect, the bishops want to elevate the discussion about the end of life, death and dying and what the church teaches about it, Gilligan said.

“These are difficult decisions for those of us who are healthy to have,” he said. “And it’s important that we do.”

The bishops encourage people to make advance directives, he said.

“It’s important for everybody to do that, whether you’re healthy or not, to designate somebody in your life who can make healthcare decisions for you in case you cannot,” Gilligan said. “That’s something that people can do now. And it maybe takes away some of those harmful things of the assisted suicide laws, the consequences.”

What the church teaches about end-of-life issues is not always clear among Catholics, Gilligan noted.

“There’s a lot of people out there who think that you have to stay alive and use extraordinary means to do so. Well, that’s not true,” Gilligan said. “Where you draw those lines is very difficult. And so we’re just trying to make people more aware of the church teaching on that and many other issues.”