While the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act did pass the Illinois House this spring, David E. Smith of Illinois Family Institute suspects the proposal did not have the necessary votes in the Senate.
"The bill passed the Illinois House by a very slim margin," he reports. "They needed 60 votes, and they got 63, even though the Democrats have a supermajority of lawmakers."

Smith thinks proponents of assisted suicide will try again in 2026, but that just means people have time to get educated on the issue and share their concerns.
"As Christians, we are told that we are made in the image of God," he notes. "Therefore, every human being has infinite value and worth. God is the one who decides our timetable, our birth, and our death."
In Smith's opinion, when a state decides to legalize suicide, they are conveying the lie that life is no longer worth living and that terminally ill patients are a burden.
"First of all, the states should never legalize suicide," he argues. "That'll normalize suicide. But more than that, we know that … even through challenges and trials and suffering, God works in our hearts and minds and in the family members around us."
This latest attempt would have allowed qualified adult Illinois residents with a terminal disease to request medication that would have enabled them to, in the measure's terms, "end their life peacefully."