Illinois temporarily allows Christian care providers to refuse to promote assisted suicide

State officials on Friday agreed to follow a federal court order that will prevent the state from forcing certain objecting doctors and Christian care homes to follow Illinois’ new assisted suicide law. Earlier this month, lawyers from the Thomas More Society, a legal nonprofit that focuses on religious liberty issues, filed a lawsuit against the bill on behalf of a group of Catholic hospitals, the Lutheran Care Center, and four individual physicians. The bill is set to take effect on Sept. 12 and will allow certain qualifying terminally ill adults to receive lethal drugs from doctors in order to end their own lives. According to the court order, the state will not apply the law to the plaintiffs in the case or another group of Catholic health care ministries while a separate case challenging the law proceeds.

What are the plaintiffs’ main objections? According to the lawsuit, the healthcare providers said following Illinois’ law would violate their faith and the Hippocratic Oath. While the bill does not require any medical or insurance providers to participate in the program, it does require hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors to refer patients to prescribers who would provide the lethal drugs. Meanwhile, some medical advocacy groups and disabled state residents said the law lacks safeguards or oversight to protect individuals from feeling pressured to take their own lives.

Dig deeper: Read my report in Vitals about how chaplains are grappling with the spread of assisted suicide laws.