Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, along with two orders of nuns, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Little Sisters of the Poor, filed a lawsuit to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law. These two orders operate eldercare facilities in Illinois, putting them on a clear collision course with a new Illinois law to which they are deeply opposed. “Right to die,” as it ...

Cardinal Blase Cupich speaks on May 19, 2025, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, along with two orders of nuns, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Little Sisters of the Poor, filed a lawsuit to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law. These two orders operate eldercare facilities in Illinois, putting them on a clear collision course with a new Illinois law to which they are deeply opposed.

“Right to die,” as it is sometimes called, is set to take effect Saturday.

One group of objecting healthcare providers already has won a narrow reprieve. In Mary Keen Kirchoff, M.D., et al. v. Treto, four doctors, Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki and the Lutheran Care Center in Altamont sued the state in August, arguing that Illinois cannot force them to counsel patients about assisted suicide, make referrals or otherwise facilitate the process in violation of their religious and conscience objections. The state agreed not to enforce those requirements against those plaintiffs for now, while the case proceeds.

Before the “right to die” bill passed during veto session last year and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed it, we argued this approach wasn’t something that should be embarked upon lightly.

The Catholic contingent challenging Illinois on this issue argues that the law has “conscripted even religious healthcare providers and institutions to participate in the provision of physician-assisted suicide.”

To be clear, the law does not require an unwilling provider to prescribe the drugs that would end a patient’s life, but it does require an unwilling provider to refer the patient to a willing provider or someone who can help the patient seek aid in dying. The Catholic plaintiffs argue that taking that step makes them complicit in something their faith teaches is morally wrong.

That strikes us as a legitimate concern. Illinois has decided that terminally ill patients should have a legal right to seek medical help to end their lives, but that should not mean every doctor, pharmacist or religious healthcare institution should be required to help them do so.

As we’ve continued to acknowledge, both sides of this issue have good arguments. People who say we should have a right-to-die law make the very fair point that many terminally ill people suffer needlessly in their final days. On the other side are advocates who make the similarly fair point that in places where these rules have been on the books for some time, experience teaches us that vulnerable people risk being dealt with expediently, moved along faster than they or their loved ones would like.

It’s also concerning that in places like the Netherlands, you don’t have to be terminally ill to end your own life. A 29-year-old woman with depression and other mental health issues made headlines when she chose euthanasia in 2024.

And in Canada, 1 in 20 deaths are due to medically assisted suicide.

We can see how the lines can become blurred, wherein what starts as an effort to ease end-of-life suffering turns into something very different.

The consequences of Illinois’ new law have remained largely hypothetical. Not anymore. We wonder how much protection our Catholic friends and other principled objectors now will have when it comes to saying no.

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