The bishop of Springfield, Illinois, has joined a group of physicians and nursing homes in a suit seeking to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law before it comes into force in September.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki, along with the Lutheran Care Center and four doctors from Illinois, filed suit on Tuesday, August 11, saying the “End of Life Options Act” will violate their consciences as well as “centuries of legal and medical tradition” by facilitating suicides.
“Illinois is forcing faith-based hospitals, nuns and doctors into supporting the state’s assisted suicide regime,” said Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, a Catholic law firm representing the group.
He continued: “The law commands Catholic hospitals, religious nursing homes and faithful doctors to promote suicide’s alleged ‘benefits’, refer patients to suicide drug prescribers and then lie on death certificates to cover it up. This immoral scheme flagrantly violates religious liberty and free speech rights, and we intend to stop it.”
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the End of Life Options Act into law on Friday, December 12. The legislation, which was initially introduced as a food safety bill, was passed by lawmakers in the middle of the night on Halloween. It goes into effect on September 12.
The bill permits those with a qualifying medical condition to receive “medical aid in dying medication” to end their lives after making several requests.
While the law does not require religious healthcare institutions to provide lethal medications themselves, it does require them to allow their employees to promote assisted suicide or assist with off-site assisted suicides. Under the law, these facilities cannot discipline or fire employees who are promoting or assisting with patient suicide, even if they are acting in violation of their employer’s guidelines, mission or identity.
Further, the law declares that “medical aid in dying” is not “suicide or assisted suicide,” and medical professionals who are found to have promoted “misinformation to obstruct access” to assisted suicide procedures are subject to fines, a licence revocation or criminal charges.
Assisting people to end their lives violates Catholic teaching, said Paprocki in a statement to the Thomas More Society.
“At the heart of the Catholic Church’s healthcare ministry is the healing work of Christ – to stand with the suffering, to comfort the dying and to affirm the God-given dignity of every human life,” said the bishop. “Illinois’ assisted suicide law undermines that mission by forcing Catholic hospitals and those who serve in them to push death onto their most vulnerable patients. We must be free to serve the sick and the dying according to our faith, not according to the state’s mandate.”
The four physician plaintiffs – two oncologists, Dr Michael Porubcin and Dr Michael Hawking, and two rehabilitation specialists, Dr Mary Keen Kirchoff and Dr Brian Couri – are all faithful Catholics, said the Thomas More Society.
“The State’s demand that physicians begin helping patients accomplish assisted suicide violates everything I know as a healthcare professional, as well as my deeply held Catholic convictions on the dignity of every human life,” said Keen in a statement to the Thomas More Society. “As a doctor, I have a responsibility to meet my patients’ existential pain with loving accompaniment, not with abandonment.”
