{"id":46217,"date":"2026-09-08T14:17:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=46217"},"modified":"2026-09-08T14:17:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:17:37","slug":"judge-weighing-arguments-to-halt-illinois-medical-aid-in-dying-law-ahead-of-september-12th-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/46217-judge-weighing-arguments-to-halt-illinois-medical-aid-in-dying-law-ahead-of-september-12th-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Weighing Arguments to Halt Illinois&#8217; &#8216;Medical Aid in Dying&#8217; Law Ahead of September 12th Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disability rights advocates worry about potential for coercion, want more state oversight<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By HANNAH MEISEL <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"mailto:hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Article Summary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A federal judge on Friday heard arguments over whether he should block the Sept. 12 implementation of Illinois\u2019 End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, or EOLA.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law, also referred to as \u201cmedical aid in dying\u201d or \u201cassisted suicide\u201d by those on opposing sides of the fight over EOLA, allows terminally ill adults in Illinois to seek lethal medication if they meet certain criteria, including a prognosis of less than six months to live.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But those who opposed EOLA in the legislative process, including religious groups and disability rights advocates, have taken their fight to court.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disability rights groups allege the law is discriminatory against disabled people, who they argue are more susceptible to physician bias and therefore coercion to end their own lives.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CHICAGO \u2014 Illinois is set to become the first Midwestern state to allow terminally ill adults to take life-ending medication prescribed by physicians when the law goes into effect late this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But a federal judge is weighing whether to block the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, or EOLA, from its Sept. 12 operative date after hearing arguments Friday in a lawsuit that alleges EOLA discriminates against people with disabilities. The suit also claims the law runs afoul of federal law including the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Affordable Care Act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thomas Geoghegan, who represents the disability rights groups, physician and disabled Illinoisans who brought the case, told U.S. District Judge John Tharp that the law upends the millennia-old tradition of the Hippocratic oath, a pledge doctors make to \u201cfirst do no harm.\u201d As a result, Geoghegan argued, EOLA will result in the \u201csevere impairment\u201d of the relationship a patient with disabilities has with his or her physician.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Read more: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/advocates-patients-file-lawsuit-to-block-medical-aid-in-dying-law-in-illinois\/\"><b>Advocates, patients file lawsuit to block \u2018medical aid in dying\u2019 law in Illinois<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s our view, ultimately, this is authorizing a different standard of care,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disability rights advocates fiercely opposed the two-year effort to pass the law, warning that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC8722582\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">physician bias<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in perceived quality of life may make doctors more inclined to encourage life-ending treatment over other options for people with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Friday, Geoghegan contended this risk of coercion could be exacerbated by the reality of the American healthcare system, in which people with disabilities are often also poor or on public aid. Other countries that allow medical aid in dying, like Canada and some of Europe, have socialized medicine systems, he pointed out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a whole different bag in the United States,\u201d Geoghegan said. \u201cBecause you can go out into the street right now and run into someone who\u2019s a defendant in a medical debt case. A whole lot of Americans are uninsured or &#8230; underinsured.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the attorney defending EOLA on behalf of the state argued that the law contains a key stopgap: Physicians are only allowed to discuss lethal options with a terminally ill patient if the patient is the one who brings it up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EOLA only applies to adults with less than six months to live \u2014 a prognosis that must be confirmed by two independent physicians. Patients must make the request for lethal medication both verbally and in writing, and doctors are required to inform them of alternate hospice care and pain control options.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, a patient requesting the medication must pass a mental evaluation by a physician to determine that they are mentally capable of making the decision and not facing undue influence. Patients must also be physically able to self-administer the medication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Read more: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/pritzker-signs-medical-aid-in-dying-bill-amid-religious-opposition\/\"><b>Pritzker signs \u2018medical aid in dying\u2019 bill amid religious opposition<\/b><\/a><b> | <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/legislature-passes-medical-aid-in-dying-bill-that-governor-says-he-will-review\/\"><b>Legislature passes \u2018medical aid in dying\u2019 bill that governor says he will review<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Geoghegan argued that the law doesn\u2019t require enough state oversight to the doctors determining whether a patient is a candidate for \u201cmedical aid in dying,\u201d a term proponents of the law often use. Opponents, which also include religious groups like the Catholic Conference of Illinois, prefer to describe it as \u201cassisted suicide.\u201d Because EOLA doesn\u2019t contain \u201can objective, state-engaged standard\u201d for doctors to make those determinations, Geoghegan told the judge the law amounted to a violation of due process rights for people with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tharp asked Elizabeth Morris, a high-ranking litigator in Attorney General Kwame Raoul\u2019s office, to respond to Geoghegan\u2019s argument that EOLA lacks a \u201cprocess to assess the validity and legitimacy of actions that might be taken under the statute.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI would argue the act itself sets forth this very thorough process to slow things down and give doctors the opportunity to assess patients,\u201d Morris said, noting that doctors are trained to walk patients through informed consent, which she also said is \u201cexplicitly spelled out\u201d in the law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And because doctors are \u201cresponsible to the state\u201d both to maintain their medical licenses and under medical malpractice law, Morris argued Illinois \u201chas already put these guardrails in place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tharp said he would make a decision on whether to grant the preliminary injunction before the Sept. 12 effective date.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Another challenge is pending<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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 7<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Circuit Court of Appeals decides a case concerning similar themes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In that case, stemming from a 2016 law requiring that, if requested by the patient, providers who don\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Read more: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/7-years-after-passage-illinois-first-in-string-of-recent-abortion-protections-gets-day-in-court\/\"><b>7 years after passage, Illinois\u2019 first in string of recent abortion protections gets day in court<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democratic lawmakers pushed EOLA through to passage in October and Gov. JB Pritzker signed it into law in December. The statute is also referred to as \u201cDeb\u2019s Law,\u201d named for former social worker Deb Robertson, a Lombard resident living with an aggressive case of neuroendocrine carcinoma.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In her arguments Friday, Morris noted the multi-year effort by advocates to fill the \u201cgap in end-of-life care\u201d options in Illinois, asserting that the \u201cpublic interest in denying the motion for preliminary injunction here is strong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disability rights advocates worry about potential for coercion, want more state oversight By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com\u00a0 Article Summary\u00a0 A federal judge on Friday heard arguments over whether [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":46218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Judge Weighing Arguments to Halt Illinois&#039; 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