SPOTLIGHT: Should Illinois Legalize Assisted Suicide?

Written by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Should Illinois legalize assisted suicide?

To answer this question, this episode of Illinois Family Spotlight will feature Dr. Benjamin German and the remarks he gave in a special forum on assisted suicide to answer this important question.

Dr. German is a primary caregiver in the Lawndale Christian Health Center on Chicago’s West side. He is also an Illinois Representative in the Academy of Medical Ethics, the biomedical arm of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.

In this special forum, Dr. German explains what assisted suicide is, how it works, and the ethical concerns that many are raising in opposition to it.

“I think there is a huge issue that looms as central in this issue of assisted suicide and euthanasia and that’s the issue of personal autonomy…

On this issue, there’s a tendency to trend towards radicalized autonomy… autonomy at all costs…”

This is a vital episode that you don’t want to miss.

Listen to “Should Illinois Legalize Assisted Suicide?” anywhere you find podcasts or click the link!

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state senator now. Ask him/her to vigorously oppose SB 3499. Below are some points that should be made to our lawmakers as they wrestle with this issue. Feel free to pick and choose whichever point(s) you find most helpful:

• Illinois is a state that has long prided itself on offering top-quality healthcare. And assisted suicide is NOT healthcare, no matter what they call it.

• Public policy should seek to improve healthcare and protect the vulnerable, not hasten death.

• Allowing medical professionals to prescribe lethal drugs damages trust in the doctor-patient relationship.

• Assisted suicide targets people who most need our assistance and compassion by treating their lives as undignified and expendable: those in pain, with disabilities, the mentally ill, the elderly, persons of color, and low-income individuals.

• Experience with assisted suicide in places where it is legal shows it to be risky, lacking in safeguards, and going far beyond its weak parameters.

• Society has a longstanding policy of preventing suicide through many public and private suicide prevention programs, the benefits of which could be eradicated under a public policy of physician-assisted suicide.

• Palliative care is a proven way to relieve pain, provide comfort, and offer comprehensive and individualized treatment that encompasses all aspects of care—physical, emotional, practical, and spiritual.

• Assisted suicide will harden many hearts. Empathy and compassion will diminish.

• Unfortunately, the only ones who benefit from assisted suicide are the insurance companies. Ending life is a much cheaper alternative to long-term care.

Physician-assisted suicide is now legal in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, California, Colorado, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
~The Lord Jesus Christ (John 10:10)~