Pritzker Says He's Still Deciding Whether He Will Sign Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill

SPRINGFIELD, IL — A bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in Illinois is heading to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk, but the governor has not committed to signing it.

Senate Bill 1950 would allow terminally ill patients aged 18 or older with a diagnosis of six months or less to live to receive prescriptions to end their lives, according to a news release from sponsor state Sen. Linda Holmes, a Democrat from Aurora. Under the bill, patients would be assessed by doctors and mental health professionals to ensure they are of sound mind.

The bill was narrowly passed by the state senate late last week, 30-27. At an unrelated press conference Monday in Glen Ellyn, Pritzker was noncommittal.

"Looking at it, it was something that I didn't expect and didn't know was going to be voted on, so we're examining it even now,” he told reporters.

"Look, I know how terrible it is that someone who’s in the last six months of their life could be experiencing terrible pain and anguish, and I know people who’ve gone through that, I know people whose family members have gone through that. And so it hits me deeply and makes me wonder about how we can alleviate the pain that they're going through.”

Holmes, who lost both parents to terminal cancer, said in the news release that the bill is about “ allowing qualified, terminally ill patients an option to consider ending their pain and distress.”

State Sen. Chris Balkema, a Republican from Channahon, in a news release Monday argued the bill’s language was too broad and lacked proper safeguards.

“I recently lost both of my parents while they were in hospice care, and I know what it means to say goodbye,” Balkema said in the news release. “Death comes for all of us, but it is not society’s role to promote a premature entrance into it.”