We are so pleased to announce that despite the Illinois House's passage of the "End of Life Options Act," which is a patient-assisted suicided bill that was hidden as an amendment in an unrelated bill about food safety, the bill ultimately failed to pass the Senate! Although we know this type of legislation has been initiated in previous years and will be introduced in future sessions, the disability community stood up and was heard! We know that MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying) bills elsewhere have harmed our community, and although they have been introduced as "options," the reality is that the majority of people exercising such an "option" are disabled, chronically ill, and low-income--our most vulnerable and marginalized communities. We are incredibly grateful to Access Living for their hard work in leading the opposition to this bill, and it's worth noting that there were thousands more people who signed witness slips in opposition to the bill than those who supported it--the end total was about 560 in support, with close to 6,000 opposing. Access Living issued a statement about the harms of these types of bills, which you can read here, and they also expressed their gratitude to the disability community for coming together and opposing this bill here.

10 Minutes A Day and our partner organization, DIYabled are both disability led and focused nonprofits, and both of us also registered our opposition to this bill. The ACLU supported this bill, and we think it's worth reaching out to them to explain that although a "right to die" bill might sound good in theory, the way they have been implemented in Canada and other US states has been to deny chronically ill, low-income communities any healthcare, then to suggest that those communities have the "right" to "choose" to die, which is something insurers and other payers would love--they would no longer have to cover their patients who have the most complex health conditions. Some people have mentioned that countries like Denmark and Switzerland are "right to die" locations, but the situation is hardly the same here--the Nordic countries typically rank among the most happy and healthy in the world, and they invest heavily in their residents' lives and healthcare. Here, we see Medicaid, SNAP, and Medicare funds being threatened at the federal level, a state budget that continues to invest less in public health than is needed, and our largest city, Chicago, which allowed a private security company to set up a "tent city" for Venezuelan migrants, which harmed everyone involved, including the migrants who were located there, nearby residents, the Chicago Park services, and which caused untold pollution after it was finally eliminated. It was neither a humane nor sustainable approach to suggest that anyone should live in a tent, when Illinois is known for its volatile temperatures, including freezing winters that last several months and hot, humid summers. 

If you have the spoons, please take a few minutes to contact the ACLU of Illinois here, and let them know that although it may sound good to support patient-assisted suicide, it actually exacerbates existing healthcare inequalities that are particularly severe for the disability community. There have been people with health conditions that are chronic, but not terminal, who were told by the healthcare industry that they should consider "ending their suffering" by dying. In reality, this is a way for a cruel insurance company or other payer to stop treating patients' health conditions, in the name of profit. Canada has already reportedly reaped some $85 billion from its MAID program. We have encountered many patients who are not terminal but have chronic, treatable health conditions have been steered into taking their lives--at this point, we feel Canada is more likely to invest in providing enough medicine for a patient to die, but not enough to live. We do not believe this is an appropriate model--if a patient were provided access to every healthcare modality--including those that could prolong their lives, the situation might be different, but that is not our understanding of what is currently taking place. On a regular basis, members of the disability community have contacted us to explain that they were being denied pain care or other existing treatments to survive and were being steered towards taking their lives. This is not what healthcare equity looks like, in our view. We thank Access Living and the many disability rights advocates and stakeholders who stopped Illinois from becoming a state that permits MAID/patient-assisted suicide. Thank you to all of you who helped fight back, and let's keep up the fight for disability equality! 

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