MAID on Halloween

The Illinois legislature recently launched a major assault on human dignity and chose to do so on Halloween. I refer to the legislature’s 30-27 vote to pass a law legalizing Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) on Oct. 31. Once the bill, Senate Bill 1950, is formally presented, the governor has 60 days to sign or veto the legislation. If the governor takes no action, it becomes law.

This sinister agenda can only get past the consciences of Illinoisans by dressing up the language, perfect for the holiday. “MAID” sounds better than what it really is: doctors killing their patients. Disguising this act in a more palatable costume does not change the reality that this legislation is yet another step in the broader culture of death that is sweeping the nation. If the legislation is signed into law, Illinois would be the first Midwestern state to adopt medically assisted death in the law.

People invest much trust in physicians in their most vulnerable moments. Doctors are professionals who must steward the public trust to act in the best interests of their patients, especially when their patients present to them in extremis. Abraham Lincoln, the most famous citizen of Illinois, said: “Let us have faith that right makes might.” Professionals such as healthcare practitioners have a duty to protect the vulnerable, not to exploit them in their weakest moments.

A legislature or governor who signs off on MAID laws is only a few moral steps away from passing future laws that scrap even the six-month prognosis limit. Why not expand it beyond hospice patients? Why not palliative care? How about mental illness? And if compassion justifies killing, why not extend it to minors? The time to stand against legalizing death is not down the road, it is today.

We can’t ignore the irony that we are allocating the role of executioner to, of all people, doctors, who have taken the oath to “do no harm.” What clearer harm can one imagine than that of killing? Physicians are responsible for administering medication to treat and heal. But death is not therapy and murder is not a legitimate prescription.

This debate reveals a deeper shift in the field of medicine. Are clinicians practitioners who inherit a virtuous profession of healing, or are they service providers tasked with satisfying requests? If the former, then a suffering patient should elicit care from the physician who then comforts them within the limits of medicine. However, if doctors are little more than vending machines for non-medically indicated procedures, like euthanasia, then not even the grave is the limit.

If lobbyists, legislators, or even the governor are so eager to push this agenda, perhaps they should be the ones writing the lethal prescriptions. Legalizing this practice will only deepen the public’s mistrust of the healthcare system. If elected officials insist on legitimizing such a horror, they ought to bear its consequences with literal blood on their own hands, not just figuratively. Better yet, Illinois should look past the costume and refuse to legalize professional murder, whatever obfuscating acronym or polished pageantry is used to disguise it.

The Illinois bill for legalizing Medical Assistance In Dying is on Gov. Pritzker’s desk. He has the decision to honor the state’s constitution or to directly contravene it. The preamble includes, “We, the People of the State of Illinois—grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He has permitted us to enjoy and seeking His blessing upon our endeavors—in order to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the people…” There can be no mistaking that the Almighty God to whom the signatories of the Constitution offered their gratitude would find that MAID violates the health, safety, and welfare of people created in His image.

MAID is nothing less than the full-throated endorsement of doctors killing their patients. Under the guise of compassionate marketing, we would give the devil his due by legalizing the grisly practice of physician-assisted suicide. Furnishing lethal prescriptions is the deepest violation of clinical ethics, the Illinois Constitution, and the souls of people created in the image of God. This evil bill must be stopped.