Coroners join Chicago Tribune in urging Illinois governor to veto assisted suicide bill

A bill to legalize assisted suicide continues to rest in the hands of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who said he would review it. The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board has urged him to reject it, as has a group of Illinois coroners who are "concerned because the statute exempts medically assisted suicides from a coroner investigation," according to local news station KFVS12.com.

Key Takeaways:

• The Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune is urging Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker not to sign a bill that would legalize assisted suicide in the state. The Board said that after speaking with advocates on both sides of the issue, it saw the potential for abuse if assisted death is legalized.

• The Editorial Board also expressed concern of potential coercion of patients to choose assisted death and ultimately, it argued, "you can’t put a price tag on every moment you get with your loved ones."

• Likewise, a group of at least 50 Illinois coroners has serious concerns about the bill as it relates to accountability in accurately determining cause of death.

• The assisted suicide law would require those deaths to be recorded as deaths from "natural causes."

The Details:

On October 31, the Illinois Senate narrowly passed an assisted suicide bill which was inserted as an amendment inside an entirely unrelated bill about food preparation.

Under the bill, a person must be an adult resident of Illinois who has a terminal illness, meaning doctors must have given the person six months or less to live. There are supposed protections in place to prevent abuse and ensure no one is coerced to die, but as has been proven, the government that legalizes assisted death (and the insurance companies that cover it) can quickly become coercive.

The Chicago Tribune's Concerns

The Editorial Board of The Chicago Tribune urged Pritzker not to sign the bill, just as it had previously urged legislators not to take up the issue at all. If Pritzker does sign the bill, it would make Illinois the 12th state to legalize assisted suicide in addition to Washington, D.C.

The Editorial Board wrote:

In spring 2024, we met with compassionate voices on both sides of the issue and were sympathetic to their stories. On the one hand, folks who are opposed to medical-assisted dying draw the line at a doctor — sworn to protect human life — intentionally being part of causing it to end and thus being asked to carry that ethical burden. 

On the other, supporters pointed to the seemingly needless suffering many face at the end of their lives. We’ve witnessed such agony firsthand, and to that end are passionately supportive of palliative care that seeks to lessen this agony.

The Tribune spelled out its concerns, including that safeguards originally in place eventually disappear. It pointed to California, which amended its rules a few years ago to shorten the waiting period between a patient's first request for assisted death and his second from 15 days to just 48 hours. It also noted:

One of the most persuasive arguments against medically assisted death, in our view, came from advocates who spoke on behalf of people with disabilities. We also took particular note of a Harvard study that surveyed doctors and found that 82.4% of those physicians believed that “people with significant disability have worse quality of life than non-disabled people.”

The study also found that only 40.7% of physicians were “very confident” in their ability to provide equal quality care to patients with disabilities. Those advocating for this community view these results as worrying, questioning whether some in the medical community have an inherent bias against their constituency. We say that’s a fair concern.

The Editorial Board also "found it troubling" that many individuals dealing with a serious illness will seek out assisted death out of the fear that they will be a burden, specifically a financial burden, on their loved ones. "Their worry is understandable, but we believe you can’t put a price tag on every moment you get with your loved ones," they wrote.

Coroners' Concerns

As KFVS12 reported, many coroners are concerned that the law "exempts medically assisted suicides from a coroner investigation." This provision could easily be subject to abuse, and "removes an independent set of eyes" when accountability is needed. The outlet noted:

County coroners are concerned because the statute exempts medically assisted suicides from a coroner investigation. Instead, the investigation is handled by the physician who prescribed the medication. The cause of death would be considered natural causes....

The outlet noted that many coroners stand in opposition to the bill:

According to [Peoria County Coroner Jamie] Harwood, Illinois state coroners already met this week to discuss the bill, and multiple coroners have sent letters of opposition to the bill. 

“There were over 50 of us at this meeting on Monday and Tuesday, who disagreed, asking the Governor for a mandatory veto where we [coroners] can be called back into the picture to make sure there are some checks and balances,” said Harwood.

KFVS12 noted:

Without a coroner’s review, there is no independent confirmation of the cause or manner of death. Coroners fear that if any questions arise from families, law enforcement, or the courts, the office may receive the case only after it’s too late to verify critical details.

By then, key medical records may be incomplete, witnesses difficult to reach, and the physical evidence complicated to evaluate. That delay, coroners argue, could hinder investigations in some cases where deeper review is necessary.

“Our concern is when something goes wrong, and believe me, I live in reality, I’ve been in this job for 9 years, something will go wrong,” said Harwood.

The Bottom Line:

It remains unclear what Pritzker will do in the Democratic supermajority state of Illinois. However, the Tribune's Editorial Board urged him not to sign the bill, saying that Illinois should "focus on easing pain, not authorizing physicians to hasten death."

"Compassion," it said, "should guide end-of-life policy, but compassion also demands caution."