Illinois Senate Bill 1950 was approved by the House with 63 votes for and 42 votes against on May 29, 2025. The Senate passed the bill in the early morning hours of October 31, 2025, with 30 voting for and 27 against. It is appropriate Senate Bill 1950, the End-of-Life Options Act was passed on Halloween. It is a terrifying trick disguised as a treat.
In the late 1800s, assisted suicide or assisted dying was a fleeting concept that didn’t take root until the late 1970s. It is irresponsible to omit the concept of eugenics as connective tissue to the history of assisted suicide. Eugenics was a collection of ideas and policies aimed at improving the genetic composition of the United States. It had intellectual support from scientists and prominent figures of the time alike. In the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Virginia’s forced sterilization law, with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. infamously stating, “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
Related specifically to assisted suicide, though, is the 1980 advent of the Hemlock Society, a right-to-die advocacy group. In 1994, Oregon passed the “Death with Dignity Act,” the first law in the nation to allow physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill patients. In 1997, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Washington v. Glucksberg while there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide, it is a state’s responsibility to decide on its legality. In 2006, the Supreme Court upheld an Oregon law that allowed physician-assisted suicide. The decision reinforced the boundaries between state and federal powers.
In 2023, Oregon and Vermont removed residency requirements from their laws, allowing non-residents to use the statutes. When you’re a breath away from association with Adolf Hitler, you’re probably on the wrong side of the matter.
Compassion & Choices, ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) of Illinois and Final Options Illinois would have you believe medical aid in dying promotes body-autonomy, compassion and relief from suffering. They would have us believe there is a dignity in a choice to make decisions for our own bodies and end our suffering with a peaceful death. They would have us believe it is kinder to allow for the end of suffering than to face a terminal illness. They would have us believe any and all legislation would include safeguards to prevent coercion and involuntary choice.
In a vacuum, this may seem reasonable. Humans do not live in a vacuum. Our lives are riddled with paradox and complications and being born with, acquiring, or aging into a disability multiplies these experiences significantly.
- In 1950, children with “severe” cerebral palsy had a life expectancy of less than 20 years. Today, it is 40 years.
- In 1990, people with HIV had a life expectancy of 10 to 20 years after diagnosis and 18 months after a diagnosis of AIDS. Today, someone with HIV and receiving treatment has a life expectancy comparable to someone without HIV; the same goes for someone diagnosed with AIDS.
- In 1950, children with Downs Syndrome had a life expectancy of 9 years. Today, it is 60 years.
- In 1990, life expectancy for someone with cystic fibrosis was 30 years; today it is over 50 years.
The point is, medical science is evolving every day. Every day, there is an opportunity to improve life expectancy. The quality of life, in turn, also improves.
Disability rights activist Lyndsay Sullivan says: “I have known people who are living or lived way past their doctor’s expectations. There are medical breakthroughs all the time and while newer treatments are expensive, insurance will cover most to all things. This is an attack on seniors and the disability community painting this bill as a graceful way to die.”
When you die, there is no possibility for improved anything. You’re dead.
When someone is considering suicide, there are any number of resources available to support someone and prevent self-harm. There’s a 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a LGBTQ+ helpline, a youth helpline, a veteran helpline and self-harm helpline. All of these even have text options.
A 2021 study using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2015-2019) found adults with disabilities were significantly more likely than those without disabilities to report suicidal ideation, planning and attempts. A separate 2021 report noted 30.6% of adults with disabilities reported suicidal ideation within the last month, compared to 8.3% of the general population.
The End-of-Life Options Act seeks to enhance these figures in Illinois by legalizing assisted suicide.
The heightened risk is associated with various factors including co-occurring mental health conditions (like depression), social isolation, perceived burdensomeness, economic difficulties, exposure to abuse or neglect, and a lack of appropriate mental health treatment.
Life does not happen in a vacuum. There are no guarantees anyone can provide to prevent coercion and involuntary choice.
Now, let’s widen our perspective of matters and seek a more holistic vision of what people with disabilities in the U.S. are going through right now.
We have a federal administration bent on degrading people with disabilities by dismantling federal agencies who help older and disabled citizens, cutting Medicaid, limiting access to voting and ongoing efforts to cut budgets for essential services.
We have multiple states in court to narrow the number of individuals who are protected under the law, diminish authority of federal agencies and a lawsuit, Texas v. Becerra, which if successful, could significantly weaken or eliminate Section 504’s protections, making it easier for discrimination against people with disabilities to go unchallenged.
According to The Bail Project, the three largest mental health facilities in the U.S. are Rikers Island in New York, Twin Towers Jail in Los Angeles and Cook County Jail in Chicago.
The End-of-Life Options Act does in fact seek to aggravate these societal symptoms in Illinois by legalizing assisted suicide.
Well, sheesh, this seems like the Republicans are to blame.
For the legislative and litigation attacks, yes, Republicans are largely to blame…but this End-of-Life Options Act and others like it are mostly supported by Democrats.
With the exception of Montana (a Republican stronghold), California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington states and the District of Columbia are all considered states with Democratic leanings, some stronger than others. All of these states have assisted suicide. Delaware just joined these ranks with their law to go into effect January 1, 2026.
There is a consistency with Democrat values. A lot of Democrats justify support of right-to-die laws for the same reasons they support right-to-choose laws in reproductive rights. Body autonomy, dignity, and personal liberty are all arguments Democrats use to support a woman’s right to choose and most disabled advocates and activists support this…to a point.
Remember what we said about paradox and complications? Most people with disabilities support abortion rights to choose except if the reason is the fetus is determined to have some kind of “defect” or early signs of “abnormalities”. Doctors and medical professionals still sometimes encourage the termination of this fetus. This is eugenics.
Now we’re just muddying the waters. This is life! It’s supposed to be muddy, messy, and complicated. What law makers lack is an understanding of nuance; they seem to want to consider these ideas in clearly defined patterns.
Ultimately, like pretty much everything else in this country, it can be simplified by examining the money. According to the Illinois Department of Commerce, Illinois has the 5th largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States, with its economy valued at over $1.1 trillion in 2024. The state’s economy is considered one of the most diversified in the world, with strong sectors in finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and technology. This is, in theory, a good thing.
In a report from The Arc of Illinois, Illinois ranked 49th in the nation for “fiscal effort” in community-based services, meaning it ranked 49th when controlling for wealth. Conversely, it ranked 4th in fiscal effort for institutional services during the same period. This is a very, very bad thing for folks who want to live in their home and community.
The End-of-Life Options Act does seem to align with the value Illinois places on the lives of people with disabilities; which is to say, hardly any value at all.
A long-time disability rights and anti-assisted suicide activist Anita Cameron reminds us: “If you’re part of a marginalized community in addition to being disabled – LGBTQIAS2+, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, other communities of color, seniors, or extremely poor, you’re more likely to be written off as terminally ill, making you eligible for assisted suicide because your life is further devalued. There is coercion in assisted suicide. It’s often very subtle. People are pressured into or convinced this is a good thing by family and doctors.”
Access Living, Catholic Conference of Illinois, Patients’ Rights Action Fund, Illinois State Medical Society and the American Medical Association are just some of the organizations who oppose the End-of-Life Options Act.
Access Living advocates say: “Illinois must strengthen healthcare access, not expand pathways to premature death. Legislators should prioritize: protecting Medicaid and Home Care-Based Services programs that support independence and dignity, address racial, economic, and disability bias in the healthcare system, and ensure all Illinoisans, regardless of disability, income, or race, have equal access to quality end-of-life care, not a fast track to assisted death.”
Patients’ Rights Action Fund says: “Illinois’s Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill dangerously and unnecessarily expands access to assisted suicide fails to protect vulnerable groups from manipulation and abuse, leaves individuals to die alone, without any supervision, risks reducing the standard of care and insurance coverage for treatment options, and infringes upon fundamental freedoms of religion and conscience.”
In spite of all of the facts rendered here and in spite of all of the subterfuge, Illinois still has a chance to do the right thing. Governor JB Pritzker can veto the End-of-Life Options Act.
Chicago ADAPT demands Governor Pritzker veto the End-of-Life Options Act.
Scott S. Nance is the oldest of three children, a disabled veteran of the US Army with experience in food service and retail, non-profit work and in public education. Scott has been to Egypt as a Professional Exchange Fellow, arrested over two dozen times for non-violent civil disobedience and has been a guest lecturer on Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 2016. Scott lives in Illinois, focused on stability and mindfulness practice.
