CMA’S Ongoing Efforts to End Assisted Suicide

By Tim Millea, M.D.

For nearly thirty years, CMA has been consistent in its opposition to assisted suicide. After Oregon became the first state to allow it in 1997, bills have been introduced in nearly every other state to legalize assisted suicide.  As a result of the opposition of CMA and other like-minded organizations and individuals, that unethical intervention has been limited to thirteen states and the District of Columbia.  However, the public debate seems to have reached a tipping point, and the focus of that appears to be the state of Illinois.

In November 2025, in the early morning hours, at the end of the Illinois legislative session, a proposal permitting assisted suicide was cunningly attached to a food sanitation bill.  That bill was passed by a very narrow margin, despite the Illinois Medical Society’s opposition to assisted suicide.  Governor Pritzker signed the bill into law a month later, but the battle was not over.

At the CMA Annual Educational Conference in Phoenix in early September, CMA President David Hilger, M.D., made an important announcement at the closing banquet: “CMA has agreed to be a plaintiff in the challenge to Illinois assisted suicide law!”  That announcement was met with resounding applause by the CMA audience, who recognized the importance of CMA’s role in this debate.

CMA’s opposition to assisted suicide has now transitioned from the medical and advocacy arenas to the federal courtroom.  With the help of legal partners at the Thomas More Society (TMS), CMA has joined the challenges to the state of Illinois.  The case, Mary Keen Kirchoff, M.D., et al. v. Treto, Jr., is an important complaint that highlights the violation of conscience rights imparted by the law’s requirements that the clinician not only discuss assisted suicide with patients but also refer them to another clinician if they refuse to provide the intervention.  Both the requirements to “discuss” and “refer” are clear First Amendment violations, which made CMA’s decision to join the case straightforward.  According to the law, all clinicians would be required to advise patients of the “benefits” of assisted suicide, which is antithetical to the principles of both ethical medicine and Catholic teaching.

CMA is joining the initial plaintiffs in the TMS filing, including three CMA members and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Springfield (IL) Diocese.  As CMA joined the list of plaintiffs, other important organizations agreed to participate as well, including the Illinois Catholic Health Association, Christian Medical and Dental Associations, National Association of Catholic Nurses, and the Catholic Psychotherapy Association.  All these plaintiffs understand that the Illinois statute compels clinicians to violate both their rights of conscience as well as their rights to religious beliefs.  Such threats to constitutionally protected First Amendment rights are unacceptable.

CMA’s efforts regarding assisted suicide extend far beyond the courtroom.  The presence of suffering in every person’s life is inescapable.  The question of how to address that is simple:  Are we to address suffering by intentionally ending someone’s life or should we provide compassionate care and accompaniment for the suffering person?  The Catholic answer to that question is clear.  God determines the length of our lives.  It is our role to support each and every individual as a child of God with support and symptom management until natural death arrives.

Rather than taking the short cut of assisted suicide, which simply eliminates the patient rather than treating them, Catholic medicine asserts the importance of care of the dying person.  When a cure is no longer possible, care should not end.  We are called to provide care, comfort, accompaniment, and respect for every human life.  And that call does not include the intentional causation of their death.

With this decision to enter the litigation arena, CMA reaffirms its commitment to the protection of and respect for every human life, from conception to natural death.  It is fundamental to CMA’s mission to “live and promote the principles of the Catholic Faith in the science and practice of medicine.”  We will not be deterred.

Dr. Timothy Millea is the chairman of the Health Care Policy Committee. He is also a CMA board member-at-large, Iowa state director, and president of the St. Thomas Aquinas Guild of the Quad Cities.

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