Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich
CHICAGO — Another group of Catholic health and elder care providers have won the right to not be forced, for now, to refer certain patients for medically assisted suicide, as the courts decide if a new Illinois state law violates the religious freedom rights of Christian health care providers who object to the practice.
On Sept. 11, U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama signed off on a temporary restraining order blocking the state from enforcing Illinois' new law against elder and health care centers operated by orders of Roman Catholic nuns, as well as other health care providers.
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich joined with nuns and health care providers in the legal action.
It marks the second such order entered by agreement with state officials blocking enforcement of the so-called End of Life Options Act (EOLOA) against Catholic and other Christian health care providers.
After Valderrama entered the order, Cupich issued a statement saying he "welcomed" the restraining order, which he said will prevent the state from forcing "healthcare providers, against their conscience, to participate in assisted suicide by compelling them to inform patients of the ‘benefits’ of suicide and their ‘right’ to kill themselves, and also help them qualify for lethal drugs, or pass them along to someone willing to help them obtain those drugs."
"These obligations violate core constitutional protections of freedom of speech and religion," Cupich said. "he law with these provisions must be struck down permanently.
"To be clear, the Church’s objection to this statute is not an attempt to impose Catholic teaching on non-Catholics; it is an effort to stop the State from compelling Catholic health care providers to violate their conscience.”
Cardinal Cupich and his co-plaintiffs, including the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Chicago Province of the Little Sisters of the Poor, are represented in the action by attorneys from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, of Washington, D.C.
Their lawsuit is one of three pending against the state challenging the EOLOA law.
In a different challenge, a group of people with severe disabilities and disability rights advocates are attempting to keep alive their lawsuit, which asserts the EOLOA law violates federal disability rights law by allegedly creating a "duty to die" for those with paralysis and other disabilities, by allegedly forcing them to be subjected to pressure from doctors and health insurers to consider suicide as a cost- and labor-saving measure.
A judge in that case, however, has sided with the state, asserting the challengers can't back up their claims, which he called "speculative," at best.
In the meantime, the Catholic plaintiffs are continuing their legal actions, arguing the law violates their constitutional rights by forcing religious adherents to violate their Christian beliefs concerning the sanctity of life and prohibition on suicide, in violation of the First Amendment's protections for religious freedom.
In one of those lawsuits, Springfield's Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Paprocki and a group of Catholic hospitals and other Christian health care providers were the first to secure a restraining order blocking the assisted suicide law from applying to them while the court weighs the challengers' requests for preliminary injunction that would more fully block Illinois officials from enforcing the law.
Those motions, however, will also remain on hold until a federal appeals court in Chicago resolves related legal questions concerning the authority of the state to force Christian doctors and other medical professionals, as well as hospitals run by religious organizations, such as Catholic hospitals, to refer patients for abortions.
It is not known when the the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals may rule in that case, known as Schroeder v Treto.
The law generally took effect on Sept. 12.
Supporters of the law, including Pritzker, have said the law is needed to provide people with terminal illnesses with "the option to seek medication to peacefully end their lives on their own terms in consultation with physicians."
When he signed the bill into law, Pritzker said the law would enable "patients faced with debilitating terminal illnesses to make a decision, in consultation with a doctor, that helps them avoid unnecessary pain and suffering at the end of their lives."
The state has noted in court that the law only opens medical assisted suicide options to those with terminal diagnoses of no more than six months to live. Further, they asserted, the law doesn't allow anyone other than the patient to decide whether to move forward with the assisted suicide. And, the state asserted, the law requires that the patient undergoing the assisted suicide must be capable of administering the lethal drugs themselves.
However, the religious challengers all assert those limits won't prevent the law from violating the First Amendment religious freedom and conscience rights of Catholics and other Christian doctors, health care and elder care providers, and patients.
“It’s hard to imagine a more blatant attack on religious freedom than forcing Catholic nuns to help people commit suicide," said Becket president and lead attorney Mark Rienzi. "Illinois was right to agree to the court’s order. We look forward to ending this mandate for good and protecting the right of patients to spend their final days with those who will offer them compassionate, life-affirming care.”
