The slippery slope continues as Illinois follows Delaware in officially giving doctors a hand in state-sanctioned death, even as New York’s Gov. Kathy Hochul announced this week that she’s ready to sign a similar bill into law.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has signed legislation legalizing physician-assisted suicide, making the Land of Lincoln the latest to adopt a medical aid in dying law.
Pritzker announced on Friday, December 12, that he had signed Senate Bill 1950, which allows eligible terminally ill patients to receive prescriptions for life-ending medication beginning in 2026.
“I have been deeply impacted by the stories of Illinoisans or their loved ones that have suffered from a devastating terminal illness, and I have been moved by their dedication to standing up for freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak,” Pritzker said in a statement.
The governor said that the law does not require medical professionals to participate in assisted suicide, noting that no physician, health care provider, or pharmacist is obligated to do so.
Weirdly, the law began as a proposal related to sanitary food preparation when it was filed in February and passed nearly unanimously in April. The legislation was later amended in the House to be an assisted suicide bill during the final week of the spring session and passed on May 29 in a 63–42 vote. During the fall veto session, the Senate approved the amended version of the bill in the early morning hours of Halloween.
Under the law, physicians will be allowed to prescribe life-ending medication to qualifying patients starting on Sept. 12, 2026.
Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, criticized the measure shortly after the signing, saying the bill lacks any real safeguards.
“This bill goes too far without the protections Illinois families deserve. Coroners, who will be responsible for determining causes of death, were never brought into the conversation. Stakeholders raised red flags that were brushed aside. Those gaps pose real and dangerous consequences,” McCombie said.
National Right to Life President Carol Tobias also condemned the new law, saying,
“Assisted suicide is not health care, and it is not compassion. This law abandons people at their most vulnerable moments and sends the message that their lives are not worth living. It sets Illinois on a path where the elderly, those with a disability or struggling with serious illness may find themselves pressured—subtly or overtly—to end their lives prematurely.”
With the governor’s signature, Illinois becomes the 12th state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize physician-assisted suicide. It is the first state in the Midwest to do so, according to Compassion & Choices, a national advocacy group that supports medical aid in dying legislation.
Illinois follows Delaware, the most recent state to enact this type of law, which is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2026. The other states that have legalized physician-assisted suicide are California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C.
However, earlier this week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, announced that she is willing to sign a medical assistance in dying bill after reaching an agreement with the Democrat-led legislature that would add several safeguards to the bill, including a five-day waiting period and a requirement that the patient is recorded saying or writing that they want to die. The original legislation passed in June. If the legislature passes the new version, it could go to Hochul’s desk for signing by early next year and would then take effect within six months.
Opponents of euthanasia say the current spate of assisted suicide laws within progressive blue states is just further evidence of the slippery slope they’ve long warned about. They point to Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program as a cautionary tale in how rapidly such policies can expand.
Euthanasia was only made legal in Canada by a Supreme Court decision in 2016 and has since become one of the leading causes of death in the Great White North.
Initially, the program restricted eligibility to patients whose deaths were considered “reasonably foreseeable”; in that first year, 1,018 deaths were attributable to MAiD.
That framework did not remain intact for long. In 2021, Canada significantly broadened eligibility to include individuals with “grievous and irremediable” medical conditions, meaning they caused physical or psychological suffering that the patient deemed unbearable. The change marked a decisive shift in both access and frequency.
Following the expansion, MAiD-related deaths rose sharply. In 2021, 10,064 people died through the program, an increase of more than 30 percent from the previous year. By 2022, the number had grown to 13,241 deaths, making euthanasia the fifth leading cause of death in Canada.
Canadian officials are now considering expanding the program to individuals with mental illness and to minors described as “mature teens.” Although the government paused those proposals to study potential consequences, critics warn that the push to broaden access has continued and could resume once the review period ends.
A similar trend is taking shape in the United States. States that were early adopters of assisted suicide laws have begun loosening their original restrictions. Vermont and Oregon, for example, now allow out-of-state residents to travel there specifically to obtain life-ending medication.
Other states have followed suit. In 2023, lawmakers in Washington State and Hawaii reduced mandatory waiting periods and expanded the list of health care professionals permitted to participate, no longer limiting involvement to physicians.
To critics, these developments reinforce a consistent pattern: once assisted suicide is legalized, its boundaries rarely remain fixed.
Illinois’ move to legalize physician-assisted suicide reflects a growing belief that life’s value depends on independence, comfort, or usefulness. When those qualities fade, life itself is treated as negotiable. That idea runs against Christian belief and the ethical foundation that has long guided the medical profession.
From a biblical standpoint, life is not something to be managed or ended at our discretion. Scripture consistently teaches that God alone determines the beginning and end of life. Every person bears His image, and that dignity does not disappear because of illness, disability, or reliance on others.
When the state allows physicians to prescribe drugs with the explicit goal of ending a patient’s life, it crosses a serious line. The authority over life and death belongs to God alone and should never be claimed by government or delegated to medical professionals.
The policy also raises other concerns. Experience shows that assisted suicide laws almost never remain as narrow as supporters initially promise. Safeguards may look strong on paper, but once the practice becomes accepted, those limits tend to erode. What starts as an option for the terminally ill often widens to include people with long-term illnesses, mental health conditions, or broadly defined claims of suffering that are difficult to evaluate.
Canada’s experience makes this pattern hard to ignore. In less than a decade, eligibility for MAiD has expanded well beyond terminal illness. People have since been approved for assisted death due to depression, fear of future decline, and even homelessness.
Legalized assisted suicide also reshapes the role of doctors. Physicians have traditionally been trusted to do no harm. When they are asked to participate in ending life, that trust is strained. The elderly, disabled, and chronically ill may begin to question whether they are being cared for or quietly categorized as expendable.
Believers are called to defend life while showing genuine compassion to those who suffer. That means advocating for better care, more effective pain management, and communities that remain present through hardship. Dignity is not found in ending life but in honoring it until natural death.
As other states consider similar laws, the Church must speak clearly and act faithfully. Moral truth is not determined by polls or political trends. Upholding the sanctity of life requires protecting the vulnerable and resisting efforts to redefine compassion.
If you like this article and other content that helps you apply a biblical worldview to today’s politics and culture, consider making a donation here.
