Illinois Is About To Legalize Assisted Suicide. Why Governor Pritzker Must Veto It.

Recently, the Illinois legislature approved a bill that would legalize so-called physician-assisted suicide in the state. The bill now rests on Governor JB Pritzker’s desk, and he has until November 30 to decide whether to sign it into law.

He shouldn’t. In fact, he should veto it.

No matter how much advocates attempt to paint euthanasia as “compassionate,” the truth stands: Euthanasia, no matter what form it takes, creates a culture of death, jeopardizing — not protecting — the most vulnerable in society.

Look at Illinois’s bill, for example. If passed, it would allow physician-assisted suicides for individuals who are suffering from a terminal illness and have been given less than six months to live. As a result, advocates have painted it as a way for the already dying — and only the already dying — to secure “death with dignity.” 

Yet the bill limits do nothing to make it more ethical than legislation that allows for euthanasia of anyone at any time.  

Every human life has value, no matter how much time that life has left. Ending a life, no matter what stage that life is at, does not give it dignity — it devalues it, treating it as worthless and disposable. 

Even if that weren’t true, allowing assisted suicide in any circumstances lays the first stone in creating a “culture of death” that spreads throughout society. 

Look at Canada. While their assisted suicide program allegedly began to help people in extreme circumstances secure death with dignity, it’s now expanded so much that it allows for same-day suicide for a broad range of conditions, including mental illness. As a result, rates of suicide have grown exponentially, increasing 13-fold between 2016 and 2022 and totaling a shocking 15,343 in 2023.  

Physician-assisted suicide has reached such a point in the U.K. that (former) Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said last year that he “worried people would feel compelled to ask to die if they felt like a burden.” 

Any legalization of assisted dying “opens the way to it broadening out,” Welby said, causing people who aren’t terminally ill to ask for it or feel “pressured to ask for it.” 

That hurts the entire society — but it’s especially harmful to the most vulnerable, including those, like my daughter, with disabilities. In a society that treats life as meaningless and treats imposing a burden on someone else as a reason to die, those with disabilities and mental illnesses are sure to fall prey. 

In Canada, they already are — a fact highlighted in stories like that of Alan Nichols, a 61-year-old who was involuntarily committed and then euthanized within a month. Such stories paint a grim picture of a society that treats patients not as people, but as objects to be discarded; the second caring for them would require effort.  

Those with disabilities should know they don’t have to throw their life away simply because of the challenges their disability poses. Their lives have value. 

Ending a human life, any life, is wrong — regardless of whether that life belongs to someone close to death, to someone with a disability or mental illness, or to someone who simply feels isolated or lonely. Governor Pritzker should veto Illinois’ dangerous legislation and reaffirm the American principle that every human — no matter who they are — has a right to life.

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Mary Vought is the Vice President of Strategic Communications of The Heritage Foundation and a former member of the National Council on Disability.

The Heritage Foundation is listed for identification purposes only. The views expressed here are personal and do not reflect an institutional position for The Heritage Foundation or its Board of Trustees.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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