SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – After a long debate, the Illinois House approved the physician-assisted end of life bill Thursday night.
The measure was approved on a vote of 63 in favor, 42 against, 2 voting present, and 11 members not voting.
State Rep. Travis Weaver (R-Edwards) was one of the members voting against the measure.
“We hear so many stories of miracles. So often someone gets a six-month diagnosis, then they live for six years. I think it’s just a really sad point where we’re at in society…where we’re helping people with their aid in death, especially at a point when we’re doing so much for suicide prevention. And, now we’re telling people not only is suicide ok, we’re going to have doctors help,” Weaver said.
State Rep. Bill Hauter (R-Morton), who is a physician, also voted against the measure.
Hauter said the doctor’s oath, passed down from generation to generation of doctors, has always contained the phrase “first do no harm.”
“Assisting a patient in killing themselves is fundamentally incompatible with this sacred duty and oath,” Hauter said.
Other versions of the bill were filed in the General Assembly earlier this spring, but there was no movement on the stand-alone legislation in either chamber of the General Assembly.
The bill’s sponsor attached an amendment with the bills’ language on to Senate Bill 1950, which had already passed in the Senate.
Being approved in the House, the bill now goes back to the Senate for concurrence. If approved by the Senate, Illinois will become the 12th state in the nation to legalize medical aid in dying.
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