Daily Herald opinion: Compassion and control: ‘Deb’s Law’ offers an important, regulated choice for the terminally ill
Last week, Illinois became the 12th state to enact legislation that allows terminally ill adults to end their lives with medication prescribed by a physician.
On Friday, Gov. JB Pritzker signed “Deb’s Law,” which is named after Lombard resident Deb Robertson.
Robertson has neuroendocrine cancer and advocated for the bill.
The law narrowly passed the Senate in September, after the House approved it in May. Pritzker signed the bill after listening to advocates on both sides of the issue.
“I have been deeply impacted by the stories of Illinoisans or their loved ones that have suffered from a devastating terminal illness, and I have been moved by their dedication to standing up for freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak,” Pritzker said Friday in a statement.
As Marni Pyke detailed in her story in Saturday’s paper, the law doesn’t go into effect until September 2026, giving health providers and regulators time to put in place processes and protections to prevent abuse. The law already outlines a process that requires several steps before patients are given the medication.
Doctors can also refuse to provide medical aid in dying and can’t face discipline or lawsuits for prescribing or refusing to give the medication.
Religious groups and some disability groups have expressed opposition to the legislation. The law will likely face legal challenges.
We understand where they’re coming from, but we also understand the interests of adults facing terminal illness who want the right to choose how they spend their final months.
We don’t understand why some Republican leaders in the state are callously throwing around terms like “Pritzker's pro-death legislation” or declaring that the “bill goes too far without the protections Illinois families deserve.” Medical aid in dying is a difficult topic. It is not surprising that individuals would have strong feelings about the subject. But it also is a topic on which people within both parties will have varying opinions, and it serves no one to declare the other side void of compassion or employ fear-mongering and hyperbole.
Illinois isn’t the first state to adopt this law. Based on what has happened in other states, there’s no reason to believe it will be abused or affect care for people nearing the end of life.
“If you don’t believe in it, that’s OK, but allow me to have that option available to me, the terminally ill dying person,” Robertson said in November.
We support giving her that option. This law isn’t advocating that people with a terminal illness take their own life. It’s giving them a measure of control over when and how to say goodbye on their own terms. It seems only fair and compassionate that they be allowed that.