Lawmakers weigh whether to legalize ‘medical aid in dying’

Lawmakers are considering legalizing a controversial medical practice that proponents say could ease suffering for the terminally ill.

It’s sometimes called “assisted suicide,” although physicians and advocates for the practice prefer the term “medical aid in dying,” or MAID.

While Compassion & Choices — a group that advocates for medical aid in dying policies — found a majority of Illinois voters supported legalizing MAID in a 2023 poll, some critics call the process “barbaric.”

The measure, contained in Senate Bill 9, is being backed by Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, who told her Senate colleagues at a hearing Feb. 21 that she supports the proposal because of her parents’ deaths. Both her mother and father died after extended battles with cancer.
Holmes’ proposal would legalize MAID — a process where a doctor prescribes but does not administer a lethal combination of drugs — for patients whose doctors determine have less than six months to live due to a terminal illness. The patient then administers the drugs on their own at a time of their choosing.

The bill contains several safeguards to prevent abuse, according to its proponents, including a waiting period to receive a prescription, a requirement that the patient receive a terminal diagnosis from two doctors, a requirement that patients prescribed lethal medication have sufficient “mental capacity.”

Friday’s meeting of the powerful Senate Executive Committee was a “subject matter” hearing, meaning no vote was taken. The bill will need more committee hearings, a vote in both legislative chambers and approval by the governor before becoming law.

Ten other states and Washington, D.C., have all legalized some form of medical aid in dying. Oregon was the first state to legalize MAID in 1994.

Advocates for the proposal include patients with terminal illnesses, people whose loved ones used the procedure in other states and doctors who specialize in end-of-life care.

In 2022, Deb Robertson of Lombard was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma — a rare and aggressive form of liver cancer. She asked lawmakers to give her “permission” to take her own life.

Diana Barnard, a doctor in Vermont who offers MAID prescriptions, said most patients have “a very clear understanding” of what’s an acceptable quality of life as they approach death.

“We have now 27 years of national experience with the practice that really shows these laws are working well,” Barnard said.

But the medical practice is controversial among doctors and disability activists.

Benjamin German, a doctor on the West Side of Chicago, said the “problem” with the bill was its safeguards.

“For some of my patients, these safeguards will be just tight enough for lawmakers to assume things will be okay and amply generous to allow abuse to happen,” German said. “People and organizations looking for ways to exploit this law, I fear, will find a way.”

Disability advocates, meanwhile, say they worry about medical professionals mischaracterizing illnesses as terminal, misdiagnosing people or pushing vulnerable or marginalized people to consider ending their own life.

“As someone with a disability myself – I use a wheelchair – I can say firsthand that my life is often viewed as something to pity and not something to cherish,” Riley Spreadbury, an independent living advocate from Joliet, said. “It’s sentiments like these that make me incredibly concerned regarding Senate Bill 9.”

MAID is also opposed by groups that express a “consistent life ethic,” meaning they object to abortion, capital punishment, assisted suicide and euthanasia. Those groups include the Catholic Church and non-religious groups such as Illinois Right to Life.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

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