Federal judge declines to block Illinois' 'medical aid in dying' law ahead of Sept. 12 start
CHICAGO -- A federal judge on Thursday declined to block Illinois' new "medical aid in dying" law from going into effect this weekend, clearing the way for terminally ill adults to legally seek life-ending medication from physicians.
The End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, or EOLA, which Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law in December after a two-year legislative push, is restricted to adults who have less than six months to live, as determined by two separate physicians. In addition to a mandated waiting period, patients must undergo an evaluation finding they are able to self-administer the drugs, have the mental capacity to make the decision and are not being coerced.
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The law also prohibits doctors from broaching the subject without the patient first bringing it up. Even so, a group of disability rights advocates, patients and a doctor sued to halt the law ahead of its Sept. 12 effective date, claiming EOLA will lead physicians to push their disabled patients toward what opponents refer to as "assisted suicide."
In courtroom arguments last week, a lawyer for plaintiffs alleged the law will result in the "severe impairment" of the relationship a patient with disabilities has with his or her doctors and is tantamount to discrimination.
But U.S. District Judge John Tharp rejected those arguments, writing in his order Thursday that lead plaintiff Ebony Payne, a Chicago resident who is paralyzed from the neck down and suffers from severe asthma, had failed to prove she will suffer irreparable harm when the law goes into effect.
"Ms. Payne's intangible injuries rest on her speculation that physicians in Illinois will decide, en masse, to abandon their existing duties to their patients," the judge wrote. "She has not persuaded the Court that this is anything other than speculation."
Disability rights advocates and religious groups, particularly those affiliated with the Catholic Church, fought against the EOLA in 2024 and 2025. The statute is also referred to as "Deb's Law," named for former social worker Deb Robertson, a Lombard resident living with an aggressive case of neuroendocrine carcinoma.
Illinois is not the only state where disability rights advocates have challenged medical aid in dying laws in court; a similar coalition filed a lawsuit to block New York's law on the same day in June, but a federal judge dismissed the case in July and the law went into effect last month.
EOLA, like other states' medical aid in dying laws, is modeled after Oregon's 1997 statute, but Illinois is the first Midwestern state to legalize life-ending medication for terminal patients.
Legal arguments
Thomas Geoghegan, an attorney representing Payne and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit, argued to Tharp on Friday that a physician who prescribes lethal medication to a patient represents the upending of the Hippocratic oath, a millennia-old pledge doctors make to "first do no harm."
But the judge countered Geoghegan's impassioned courtroom assertion that "this is not medicine" with the language of the law, which defines life-ending medication as "part of general medical care." Tharp pointed to the examples of three patients cited in the law, "one still living and two who have died, who wished for Illinois to permit" medical aid in dying "so that they could avoid suffering and pain during their final days."
"Under this view, providing end-of-life care promotes the duty to 'do no harm' rather than erases it because failing to alleviate pain and suffering would itself be a cause of harm," the judge wrote.
Plaintiffs also claimed EOLA doesn't have strong enough oversight from the state to ensure that doctors aren't cutting corners or coercing their patients into choosing lethal medication over palliative care, despite the law's mandate on discussing the pros and cons of all end-of-life options with their patients.
But Tharp didn't buy that argument either, reasoning that the plaintiffs "cannot show that doctors will act 'predictably' in response to the Act because of the broad discretion it gives doctors." The judge pointed to "an entire section" of the law that spells out physicians' rights to decline participating in prescribing life-ending drugs - and not face any discipline for their choice.
He also noted Payne's strong opposition of EOLA in a personal capacity and her conviction to never choose it for herself.
"Thus, there is no basis on which to speculate that any doctor, let alone one who encounters Ms. Payne or disabled members of the plaintiff organizations, will even be a provider of end-of-life care under the Act," Tharp wrote.
Payne, who attended last week's arguments wrapped in a blanket in her wheelchair, said in a statement Thursday that she was "disappointed" in Tharp's ruling, maintaining it " removes the duty of physicians in Illinois to 'do no harm' and sets up a system where a physician can assist in killing a patient without oversight or accountability."
In ruling against their motion for a preliminary injunction Thursday, Tharp gave plaintiffs 30 days to make their arguments for why the case shouldn't be dismissed altogether.
Separate religious challenges
In a separate challenge to EOLA filed last month by religiously affiliated healthcare systems and doctors, another federal judge in Chicago approved a temporary restraining order agreed to by all parties. The stipulated TRO exempts the plaintiffs from having to discuss lethal medication with patients until the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decides a case concerning similar themes.
In that case, stemming from a 2016 law requiring that, if requested by the patient, providers who don't perform abortions must refer, transfer to or give patients written information about providers who do. A federal judge in Rockford issued a mixed ruling in the case last year, which the parties swiftly appealed. The appellate panel heard arguments this spring and could issue a ruling any time now.
Also last week, the Midwest's highest-ranking Catholic official, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, filed a separate lawsuit on the same grounds. In court filings Thursday, attorneys for all parties indicated the two cases would likely be consolidated.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
