Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday wouldn’t commit to signing legislation narrowly approved by the Illinois General Assembly that would allow terminally ill people to end their own lives with a doctor’s prescription, but he said he’s “deeply” affected by the plight of residents seeking end-of-life options.

The Illinois Senate passed the polarizing bill with a bare-minimum 30-27 majority last week during the waning overnight hours of the Legislature’s fall veto session, leaving Pritzker’s signature as the final hurdle toward granting patients access to life-ending medicine if they have six months or less to live.

Like many other Springfield observers, the Democratic governor said he was surprised to see the bill taken up five months after it passed the Illinois House with just three votes to spare.

“It was something that I didn’t expect and didn’t know was going to be voted on, so we’re examining it even now,” Pritzker said after an unrelated press conference Monday in Glen Ellyn.

“I know how terrible it is that someone who’s in the last six months of their life could be experiencing terrible pain and anguish, and I know people who’ve gone through that. I know people whose family members have gone through that, and so it hits me deeply and makes me wonder about how we can alleviate the pain that they’re going through,” Pritzker said.

Lawmakers in 11 other states and Washington D.C. have passed so-called “right-to-die” legislation, which is opposed by religious leaders including Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich.

Illinois’ bill, championed by Democratic Aurora state Sen. Linda Holmes, would open the door for people 18 or older with a terminal diagnosis to be prescribed a fatal dose of medicine.

They would have to be assessed by a physician and a mental health professional as being “of sound mind,” and make a series of oral and written requests for the drug, with witnesses attesting.

Doctors would be required to explain other end-of-life care options such as hospice. If prescribed a life-ending drug, patients would administer it themselves. Health care providers wouldn’t be required to participate.

“This is a choice,” Holmes said during Senate floor debate. “If you are opposed to it, whether the reason is moral, religious, you just don’t like the idea — fine.
I would never tell you you should choose this option. What I’m saying is, why? Why, if I am facing an illness where I am going to die in pain, do you think you should tell me I don’t have the option to alleviate that pain?”

Holmes, whose parents died of terminal cancer, urged colleagues to “let people make the decision on how their lives are going to end.”

State Sen. Chris Balkema, R-Channahon, denounced the effort “to introduce a culture of death into Illinois.”

“Assisted suicide forces doctors into a role that contradicts their professional ethics. Illinois’ values overall are at stake,” Balkema said. “Whether the Lord chooses to take somebody today or 50 years from now, it shouldn’t be our choice to walk down that slippery slope, only to come back later, to have a future general assembly, open the guardrails and allow more of this.”

Archdiocese leaders of the Catholic Conference of Illinois urged Pritzker “not only to veto this bill in totality, but also to address humanely the reasons why some view assisted suicide as their only option.”

“It defies common sense for our state to enact a 9-8-8 suicide hotline, increase funding for suicide prevention programs and then pass a law that, based on the experience of other jurisdictions, results in more suicide,” Catholic Conference leaders said in a statement.

Bill proponents from the ACLU of Illinois and the nonprofit Compassion & Choices hailed the legislation to ensure “everyone in Illinois has the ability to access all options at the end of life.”

“Our hearts are with the families and individuals who have courageously shared their stories in the effort to advance this legislation. Their honesty and openness will make life better for Illinoisans once the law is implemented,” supporters said in a statement.

Pritzker has two months to consider the bill.