CHICAGO (OSV News) — A significant number of Catholic health workers in Illinois are now covered by a temporary restraining order on the state’s new physician assisted suicide law that took effect Sept. 12.
The Thomas More Society, a Catholic-run public interest law firm, said in early October it added the Illinois Catholic Health Association, Catholic Medical Association, Christian Medical and Dental Associations, the National Association of Catholic Nurses and Catholic Psychotherapy Association, Inc., and another two individuals, as plaintiffs in its lawsuit against Illinois’ secretary of financial and professional regulation and the director of public health.
Judge Franklin Valderrama of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division on Oct. 5 granted the addition of the plaintiffs that will temporarily allow them to continue to practice their profession without being compelled to refer terminally ill patients to other healthcare workers that would help them end their lives with lethal prescription drugs. They also will not be facing steep fines and sanctions, such as loss of licensure to practice medicine for describing the law as physician-assisted suicide.
According to the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, medical professionals who object to carrying out their patients’ requests for assisted suicide must refer them to others who would fulfill the request and ensure the rapid transfer of patient records to the consenting healthcare workers. The cause of death on the death certificate cannot be listed as suicide and must be the original terminal illness.
The Thomas More Society contends these sections — along with sections requiring healthcare professionals to discuss the “benefits” of assisted suicide and to avoid what the state calls “misinformation” — violate their clients’ conscience rights, freedom of religion and free speech rights.
The law allows patients, with a prognosis of six months or less to live, to request powerful prescription drugs at very high doses that would kill them. A terminal diagnosis from a doctor must be concurred with by another doctor.
A patient needs to have the mental capacity to choose the option and be able to self-administer the lethal drugs. And, if necessary, a healthcare professional, such as a pharmacist or social worker, would have to determine the patient’s mental fitness to do this.
Thomas More Society filed the original lawsuit Aug. 11 to cover Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield — whose diocese includes two Catholic health systems — four Catholic doctors and a Lutheran nursing facility.
The Chicago-based firm said the judge’s Oct. 5 expansion of coverage of the temporary hold to the Illinois Catholic Health Association protects “95% of the state’s Catholic health care institutions.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church specifically condemns the practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide as “morally unacceptable” and a violation of the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not kill.”
St. John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” reiterates Church teaching that “suicide is always as morally objectionable as murder. The Church’s tradition has always rejected it as a gravely evil choice.”
“Illinois was poised to force doctors, nurses, and Catholic hospitals to choose between their consciences and their licenses,” Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at Thomas More Society, said in a statement announcing the judge’s expansion of the order.
“This order lifts that threat for nearly every Catholic health care institution in the state and for the members of the state’s largest Catholic and Christian medical associations. We will keep fighting until that protection is permanent,” Breen said.
Thomas More Society said the restraining order will stay in place until Valderama rules on the plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction.
The firm is awaiting the outcome of two of its other cases currently before the federal appeals court in Chicago that are also being argued against the state on the same grounds. The result would determine whether the Thomas More Society would succeed in attaining a permanent injunction against the state assisted suicide law.
Earlier in September, Valderrama also granted a temporary restraining order to Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, two orders of Catholic women religious, and an Illinois pharmacist in response to their lawsuit, Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. Prince. The Catholic entities, represented by the public interest firm Becket, likewise argued the law would require them to facilitate such deaths for their patients in violation of their faith.
Simone Orendain is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Chicago. OSV News staff contributed to this story.
