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Illinois

Status of End-of-Life Legislation

The Illinois End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (SB 3499), that would authorize medical aid in dying in Illinois, was introduced in the Senate on February 8, 2024 by Assistant Majority Leader Linda Holmes (D 42). The legislation is summarized here.

The majority of Illinoisans support medical aid in dying. In a 2023 poll, 71% of likely Illinois Voters supported this compassionate legislation. The majority of Illinois physicians also support this option with the key safeguards in the legislation

Survey of Illinois Physicians’ Attitudes Toward Medical Aid in Dying as an End-of-Life Option

Illinois Legislative Campaign Overview

The Compassion & Choices Action Network Illinois team and the ACLU of Illinois are partnering in the Illinois End-of-Life Options Coalition to advocate for the end-of-life care option of medical aid in dying for qualified terminally ill Illinoisans. If you would like to get involved in this movement, please sign up here.

Polling

Legislation to allow medical aid in dying, an option for mentally capable, terminally ill adults to peacefully end unbearable suffering, is supported by a wide majority of Illinois voters, regardless of political affiliation, disability, race, gender identity, age or religion.

5 charts showing support for Medical Aid in dying across demographics in Illinois

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Hear from Illinoisan Deb Robertson

Nilsa Centeno is the mother of the late Miguel Carrasquillo, a Chicago chef who died in his native Puerto Rico in 2016 of brain cancer while advocating for medical aid in dying.

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Tools and Resources

Illinois Newsletter Archive, issues linked below

Fall/Winter 2022
Summer 2022
Spring 2022
Fall 2021

 

simple blue medical cross graphic.For Patients Access the Illinois Advance Directive  

 

 

tools for end of life planning and decision making.End-of-Life Planning Use our step-by-step guide to chart your journey.  

 

 

advance care planning and resources in Spanish, espanol.Los recursos en Español Los recursos en Español.  

 

 

answers to questions about COVID-19, including treatment and end of life.COVID-19 Toolkit Get answers to your questions about COVID-19 and end of life care.  

 

 

tools for end of life planning and decision making.Resources for Providers Find resources tailored to the needs of healthcare providers.     

 

 

Ralph McFadden and his partner Keo seated in a garden

“It takes courage to die the way you want rather than die the way people think you ought to. For me, that’s dignity.”

Ralph McFadden shared his story in January of 2024.

In the late 1980s, after spending nearly two decades working as a pastor and denominational executive, I started working with the gay community intimately affected by the AIDS epidemic, first as a volunteer with AIDS Pastoral Care Network in Chicago, then as a hospital and hospice chaplain. 

Starting in 1990, I recall poignantly being with young gay men dying from HIV — sometimes with their partners, and sometimes with or without their parents by their side. Sometimes, the parents would not acknowledge that their son was gay and dying from HIV, and sometimes they would hold a memorial service for their son back in their hometown and tell people he had died of cancer. For those young men whose parents were unwilling to honor their memory truthfully, I held memorial services for their partners and friends and among their community at gay-friendly congregations.

Recognizing the damaging injustice of homophobia was important in my claiming my own identity as a gay man. Holding a space of authenticity, honoring how these men identified, and the truth about what took their lives and how rampant HIV was at the time was personally important. These individuals, just like anyone else, deserved the integrity of being honored wholly.

As a chaplain, not only did I visit with hundreds of people who were dying and their loved ones, but I was by the bedside of many at the time of their deaths. I have celebrated with dozens of families and friends in memorial services. One of the most memorable was with the wife and children of a man in his fifties: at the timberline on Mt Evans, scattering his ashes, while a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace” on the same hillside.

At 90 years old, living with cancer (but thankfully in remission because of a very experienced and competent hematologist) and because of the years with hospice, and certainly because of the more recent deaths of family and friends, I cannot avoid — nor do I want to — considering the end of my life.

I have written a rather detailed will that includes my children, not-for-profit agencies and my partner, Keo, of 25 years. I have given careful consideration and have had detailed discussions with Keo and my adult children about how I want my life to end: no protracted and long, drawn-out attempts to save my life. If my cancer progresses to stage two or three, contact home hospice care. If unable to verbalize my thoughts and possibly in a paralyzed or incapacitated state, I ask for no further treatment. 

Keo and my children know, understand and have promised to enforce my wishes to the best of their abilities. I have signed an agreement with a local funeral organization that allows them to go ahead with cremation in the event that my family cannot be reached. I have made it clear that I prefer cremation — and have named two possible locations for the remains: my congregation’s memorial garden and, of course, the hillside at the timberline of Mt. Evans. My pastor — and my partner and my adult children — will have access to a file folder that “suggests” possible memorial service ideas. I have a relative that has written in his will and remarks for his memorial, “Do not sing ___ ,” and he names a tune that he had heard countless times at memorial services. I have no such demands but appreciate the thought that he has given to his specifications.

My experiences within hospice were instrumental in understanding how people die and what it means to support someone going through this transition we all eventually must endure. I found that there are options — including medical aid in dying — that empower a patient and that a painful end doesn’t have to go on and on and on. People deserve options. Lawmakers should not prohibit their constituents from making whatever decision is right for them. It takes courage to die the way you want rather than die the way people think you ought to. For me, that’s dignity. 


The Compassion & Choices family comprises two organizations: Compassion & Choices (the 501(c)(3)), whose focus is expanding access, public education and litigation; and Compassion & Choices Action Network (the 501(c)(4)), whose focus is legislative work at the federal and state levels.

 

Supported in part by Compassion & Choices Action Network.

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