Members of the Illinois General Assembly are debating two bills, SB 9 and HB 1328. Both bills have the goal of legalizing physician-assisted suicide. As a 68-year-old woman with a significant disability, I believe these bills must be rejected outright. Physician-assisted suicide is discrimination in its most blatant form. The practice is particularly dangerous for people with disabilities, people of color, the uninsured and underinsured, the poor, veterans, senior citizens, people with mental illness and more. Both bills say that safeguards have been included. However, safeguards can easily be circumvented. In some states where the practice is legal, residence requirements have been loosened, diagnoses have been broadened, and waiting times have been shortened. Efforts to expand eligibility measures are likely to be advanced here if the bills become law. The National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency, in 2019 released the findings of a study that found the “safeguards” in place in suicide assistance laws are “ineffective” and “fail to protect patients.”
The late Illinoisan Diane Coleman, founder of Not Dead Yet, national grassroots ground that opposes legalization of assisted suicide, pointed out that “assisted suicide drugs are cheaper than meeting the actual health care needs of people with terminal or serious/advanced conditions.” That is because medical treatment, hospitalization, nursing homes and home care would quickly exceed the cost of drugs provided to those who request them, as well as the cost of doctor visits required under assisted suicide laws.
The doctor/patient relationship is sacred. It is a bond that is strengthened by mutual trust. Legalizing doctor assisted suicide irrefutably erases that trust. Illinois lawmakers must unequivocally reject legalizing doctor assisted suicide. To do less will leave a stain on our state of which we all will be ashamed.
Pam Heavens
Community Access Advocate
UCP-Center for Disability Services
Joliet, IL
