By Mallory Mankin, Staff Writer
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act” or “Deb’s Law” (SB 1950) on Dec. 12, 2025. Under the new law, qualified terminally ill patients will be able to apply for medication to end their own lives. The passage of SB 1950 makes Illinois the 12th state in the nation, and the first in the Midwest, to legalize assisted death.
Asa Thurstone, a first-year Bible and theology major on the pre-medicine track, voiced concerns about this law’s contradiction of the Hippocratic oath, whose foundation is based upon “doing no harm.”
As a student fellow for Wheaton’s Center of Applied Christian Ethics, Thurstone felt opposed to the legislation on ethical grounds. He views the practice of doctor-assisted suicide as a “cheap solution to bodily pain” that ought to be prohibited for reasons of both faith and sound medical practice.
“I personally see this as a contravention of the fundamental oath that physicians make when they consult their patients to help them commit suicide instead of rendering true aid,” Thurstone said. “I don’t think suicide is ever a moral option for somebody to take.”
SB 1950 passed the House 63-42 and the Senate 30-27. The bill is named in honor of Illinois resident Deb Robertson, who was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma, a fast-growing cancer.
Medical services will not be available until September 2026, and patients seeking this option must meet certain qualifications. Only adults with a terminal illness and a prognosis of six months or less to live, as confirmed by two physicians, may apply for the medication. Patients would have to be informed of all end-of-life care options, including but not limited to hospice, palliative care and pain management. They must also be deemed mentally capable of making medical decisions by a physician.
Patients who apply and receive the medication can choose, at any time and for any reason, not to take it. They must self-administer the medication, and the death certificate will cite their underlying terminal illness as the cause of death.
Requests for aid-in-dying medication must be submitted both orally and in writing by the patient. It is not an option that can legally be requested by guardians, legal representatives or health care agents. SB 1950 makes coercion of assisted death requests a felony punishable by law.
The legislation also prohibits insurance companies, including Medicaid, from denying patients benefits because of their terminal illness. This extends to their choice to seek or not seek assisted death medication. In this way, insurance entities are not to engage in the patient’s decision-making process by changing their rates.
Advocates of the legislation, such as the nonprofit Death With Dignity, argue that it applies to a narrow group of people and includes strict eligibility requirements that prevent abuse. Additionally, there is an emotional appeal that terminally ill patients should have the right to decide how they die and retain their autonomy.
First-year economics major Maddie Mazur criticized the new protocol of documentation.
“It’s basically just suicide in and of itself,” she said. “But we’re calling it assisted death, just because you’re given the resources to kill yourself.”
A bill aiming to repeal the assisted death provision was introduced to the state legislature on Jan. 12 by Republican Rep. Brad Halbrook of Illinois’ 107th District. As of this publication, Halbrook’s HB 4381 has been referred to the rules committee.
Halbrook, when asked about why he sponsored the bill, cited Job 1:21 and Psalm 139:14 to defend his conviction that life is entrusted to us by God and that life is not for humanity to end. He also brought up Psalm 82:3 and its charge to care for the vulnerable.
“Legalizing physician-assisted suicide places the sick, elderly,and disabled at risk when they need protection, hope, and comfort — not abandonment,” he said. “Illinois should choose life, invest in true palliative care, and reaffirm that every life has value until its natural end.”
Graham Flynn, a junior political science and economics major, serves as the co-president of Wheaton’s Voice for Life club. Flynn did not convey much optimism about HB 4381’s likelihood of being passed.
“I think we don’t give up the fight in the slightest, but I do think realistically it’s unlikely that within this next year it’ll get passed,” he said.
He emphasized that his theological convictions about the sanctity of life inform his criticism of doctor-assisted suicide legislation like SB 1950.
“Somebody who’s 90 and suffering does not have less value, does not have less dignity than we do here,” he said. “As Christians, it is our call to love them well and to honor the image of God that they have, and offering suicide as an action, as an option, is not loving.”
