Illinois could soon allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients and become the next state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, igniting backlash from faith leaders who warn of a slippery slope toward death on demand.

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The Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate voted 30-27 to pass Senate Bill 1950, also known as the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, on Friday.

The bill, which now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, outlines the process that those with verified terminal illnesses and healthcare professionals must take to obtain and prescribe physician-assisted suicide. The policy defines “terminal illness” as an “incurable and irreversible disease that will, within reasonable medical judgment, result in death within 6 months.”

The vote fell largely along party lines, although eight Democrats broke from their party, which largely supported the measure, by joining all Republicans in voting against it. The Democrat-controlled Illinois House of Representatives voted 63-42 in favor of the measure five months earlier, with five Democrats joining all Republicans in opposing it.

The measure contains a provision stating that “Oral and written requests for aid in dying may be made only by the patient and shall not be made by the patient’s surrogate decision-maker, health care proxy, health care agent, attorney-in-fact for health care, guardian, nor via advance health care directive.”

The legislation requires signatures of a written request to undergo assisted suicide to take place in the presence of “at least 2 witnesses who attest that to the best of their knowledge and belief the patient has mental capacity, is acting voluntarily, and is not being coerced or unduly influenced to sign the request.” It clarifies that “a health care professional shall not be under any duty, by law or contract, to participate in the provision of aid-in-dying care to a patient as set forth in this Act.”

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Springfield condemned the passage of the legislation in a statement published Friday. “It is quite fitting that the forces of the culture of death in the Illinois General Assembly passed physician-assisted suicide on October 31 — a day that, culturally, has become synonymous with glorifying death and evil,” he said, referring to the bill’s passage on Halloween.

“It’s also ironic that these pro-death legislators did it under the cloud of darkness at 2:54 a.m.,” Paprocki added. “Make no mistake: killing oneself is not dying with dignity. Doctors take an oath to do no harm. Now, they can prescribe death. There are documented cases of patients being denied treatment and instead offered life-ending drugs. Individuals could also be coerced into taking the legal drug. Physician assisted suicide undermines the value of each person, especially the vulnerable, the poor, and those with disabilities.”

Paprocki called on Illinoisans to “pray for Gov. Pritzker to reject this legislation,” insisting “Illinois should be a state that offers compassion, care, and hope—not death—as the answer to human suffering.”

Carol Tobias, president of the pro-life advocacy group National Right to Life, shared her disapproval of the legislative efforts to legalize euthanasia in Illinois in a statement released Friday.

“Under the cover of darkness, Illinois lawmakers chose to advance a policy that endangers the elderly, those with disabilities, and individuals struggling with depression or terminal illness,” she lamented.

“Assisted suicide is not compassion — it’s abandonment,” Tobias asserted. “Illinois residents deserve laws that protect vulnerable people, not ones that pressure them toward an early death.”

“When states legalize assisted suicide, safeguards quickly erode, and the so-called ‘right to die’ becomes a ‘duty to die,'” she continued. “The people of Illinois have every reason to be alarmed,” urging Illinois’ Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker to “veto this bill and support true compassionate care for those facing serious illness.”

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This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Kampus Production/Pexels.