Overview
- The 'End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients' amendment allows those diagnosed with six months or less to live to be prescribed and to self-administer life-ending medication.
- Pritzker has 60 days to sign or veto the bill before it would take effect automatically without his action.
- House Democrats added the measure to SB 1950, a food preparation sanitation bill, after a stand-alone proposal stalled earlier in the session.
- Supporters, including Compassion and Choices, emphasize patient autonomy and point to a survey showing 58% of Illinois physicians favor legalization, with about two in five willing to prescribe.
- Opponents such as the Patients Rights Action Fund and Cardinal Blase Cupich urge a veto and call for expanded hospice, palliative, and mental-health services, noting Illinois would become the 12th state to legalize if enacted after Oregon and Delaware.