Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed "Deb's Law" in December 2025, making Illinois the 13th U.S. jurisdiction and first Midwest state to let terminally ill adults get a self-administered lethal prescription. The law requires two doctors to confirm a six-month-or-less prognosis, a mental-health assessment, and repeated witnessed requests before a patient qualifies. The law takes effect Sept. 12, 2026. Two separate federal lawsuits are trying to stop it before then, for very different reasons — and on Friday, Sept. 4, a judge heard arguments on one of them, with a ruling due any day.

1. Disability-rights groups say this is discrimination, not autonomy (Not Dead Yet, Institute for Patients' Rights, attorney Thomas Geoghegan)

They're not fighting this on religious grounds — they're fighting it as a civil-rights case.

This law treats disabled people as a special case for dying. Matt Vallière of the Institute for Patients' Rights says assisted-dying laws "create a separate and unequal system in which people with life-threatening disabilities are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets."

This law authorizes a double standard, Geoghegan told the judge. He argued Sept. 4 that EOLA "upends" the Hippocratic tradition of doing no harm and said: "It's our view, ultimately, this is authorizing a different standard of care."

One plaintiff says she's already living the risk. Ebony Payne, a quadriplegic Chicago woman, joined the suit after what she calls a near-death experience where the people obligated to help her did the opposite; she calls the law "a train wreck."

Money makes coercion more likely, Geoghegan says. He told the court that financial pressure could push low-income and disabled patients toward the lethal option in a way it wouldn't in countries with socialized medicine.

2. Religious objectors say this is a conscience fight, not a discrimination fight (Cardinal Blase Cupich, Little Sisters of the Poor, Bishop Thomas Paprocki)

A second, separate lawsuit says the law forces religious caregivers to help patients die against their faith.

A second lawsuit hit days before the deadline. Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and an independent pharmacist filed suit Sept. 3 through the religious-liberty firm Becket, arguing EOLA unconstitutionally compels religious hospitals, nuns, and pharmacists to counsel patients toward the lethal prescription or dispense it themselves, against their faith.

This is a fight for caregivers' freedom to say no, Cupich says. He said he hopes "courts will protect the freedom to advocate for and care for the sick and dying."

A separate group of religious providers has already won partial relief. Bishop Thomas Paprocki and the Lutheran Care Center of Altamont got a temporary restraining order exempting them from even discussing lethal medication with patients, while a related appeal sits before the 7th Circuit.

The state chose the cheap option, the conference says. When Pritzker signed the bill, the conference said it "ignores the very real failures in access to quality care that drive vulnerable people to despair" and that "our state has chosen to normalize killing oneself" instead of funding palliative and hospice care.

3. The state and right-to-die advocates say the safeguards are the point (AG Kwame Raoul's office, Compassion & Choices, Gov. JB Pritzker)

They're not arguing there's no risk — they're arguing the safeguards catch it.

Illinois is defending the law as slow by design. Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Morris told the judge Sept. 4: "I would argue the act itself sets forth this very thorough process to slow things down and give doctors the opportunity to assess patients."

The law's namesake said it gave her control at the end. Deb Robertson, the former social worker with terminal cancer whose name the law carries, said when Pritzker signed it: "I know the end for me could be near. But I'm pleased to have been able to play some role in ensuring that terminally ill Illinoisans have access to medical aid in dying."

This is pain relief, not a shortcut, Pritzker says. He said the law lets patients "avoid unnecessary pain and suffering at the end of their lives" while doctors consult with them "with authority, autonomy and empathy."

This is the result of years of organizing, Compassion & Choices says. President and CEO Kevin Díaz called Illinois "the first state in the Midwest to authorize medical aid in dying," crediting supporters' "dedication to patient-driven healthcare."

Where This Lands

A judge who's already heard both sides now has to decide, before Saturday, whether disabled Illinoisans have a strong enough discrimination claim to freeze the law. A second judge has already sided partway with religious objectors, exempting some of them from the law while a federal appeals court sorts out the conscience question. The state says the law's own paperwork — two doctors, a mental-health check, repeated written requests — is the safeguard disability advocates say doesn't exist. Illinois is already the 13th jurisdiction in the country to authorize this. Whether it actually takes effect on schedule this week is now up to judges who haven't ruled yet.

Sources