Illinois state coroners recently gathered to discuss the proposed physician-assisted suicide bill that awaits a signature on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk. Of the one hundred or so county coroners, more than fifty oppose the legislation because of language that removes deaths as a result of medically-assisted suicide from coroner oversight.
“We have a statute and obligation to prove the manner and cause of death of the deceased who pass away in our county,” Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood told a local news outlet. “Every death in my county falls under my jurisdiction, whether it be a natural cause death or a motor vehicle fatality or whatever that looks like,” he continued. “Our job is to make sure that the deceased as well as their peripheral family get justice for that death.”
If this legislation is signed, however, physician-assisted suicides will be exempt from that mandate. For many, this is a shocking and seemingly blatant stipulation: Why would “dying with dignity” advocates make this change, if not to shield assisted suicide deaths from further scrutiny?
Advocates will tell you that the legislation treats physician-assisted suicide like any other anticipated death overseen by a physician. As is the case in hospice or hospitals treating chronically-ill patients, attending physicians have the authority to sign death certificates without involving a coroner. The problem, however, is the nature of suicide and narcotics-related deaths. Both, according to Illinois state law, require further investigation.
The Reproductive Health Act (RHA)—a 2019 bill that paved the way for Illinois’s current status as a national “abortion oasis”—also included language to sidestep coroner oversight. Described at the time as “a simple clean-up bill” regarding the state’s abortion policy, the RHA language was pasted into an unrelated bill in the eleventh hour and passed in the middle of the night on the last day of the legislative session—much like the physician-assisted suicide legislation.
Of course, it was far from “a simple clean-up bill.” In addition to removing old language that criminalized abortion, pro-abortion Democrats also wiped away virtually all regulations and restrictions to abortion with this single bill. And buried in the bill was language that relinquished abortion clinics of the obligation to report maternal and fetal deaths to the county coroner’s office, shielding them from coroner oversight by placing them in the same privileged category as hospitals.
But whereas hospitals fall under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Health, subjecting them to regular inspections and strict regulatory standards around cleanliness, emergency preparedness, and staffing, abortion clinics performing surgical abortions are categorized in Illinois as “ambulatory surgical treatment centers.” These centers are technically regulated by the Department of Public Health, but the standards are different. What’s more, Illinois is infamous for allowing decades to pass without providing any onsite reviews or inspections. This inconsistency means that—unlike hospitals—standard compliance is not actively verified by the state.
Notably, they also have a vested political interest in concealing potentially fatal outcomes, which is apparent when abortion providers infamously request “no lights or sirens” when calling 911 to request emergency help for a client.
All of this—the hard work to conceal and avoid accountability, writing around existing laws so as not to be held to the same standards as everyone else—is representative of a very clear pattern among the far left, which simultaneously relies on the government for access and funding while exploiting every possible avenue to avoid answering to that same government.
Shouldn’t this give us enough reason to pause? Shouldn’t advocates of abortion and physician-assisted suicide be enthusiastic about legitimizing these highly controversial medical “procedures” by following the letter of the law, if only to silence the objections of those who oppose their practices altogether? If this is a truly legitimate and dignified process, one would assume there is nothing to hide.
Image by Pornpak Khunatorn via iStock
