Four Catholic physicians, a Roman Catholic bishop and a Lutheran nursing home have sued to block Illinois from enforcing its new assisted-dying law, arguing the statute forces health care providers to violate their religious beliefs and free speech rights.
The lawsuit was filed Aug. 11 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. It targets the state’s End-of-Life Options Act, also known as Deb’s Law. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the law in December 2025, and it is scheduled to take effect Sept. 12, making Illinois the 14th state to legalize physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients.
The plaintiffs argue the law compels physicians to discuss the “benefits” of life-ending medication and refer patients for it, regardless of a physician’s religious objections.
“Requiring only a narrow class of ‘health care professionals’ to discuss the ‘benefits’ of and refer for assisted suicide with respect only to terminally ill patients, contrary to those professionals’ deeply held religious beliefs, is neither neutral nor generally applicable,” the complaint states.
The complaint also invokes physicians’ oath to “first, do no harm” and calls the law “flagrantly unconstitutional.”
The plaintiffs further argue the law requires physicians to omit that a lethal substance contributed to a patient’s death when completing death certificates, in effect compelling doctors to misstate the cause of death.
A separate claim argues the law’s prohibition on “intentionally misleading” information is too vague to give physicians fair notice of what speech could violate it, which the plaintiffs say amounts to a due process violation under the 14th Amendment.
The physician plaintiffs are Mary Keen Kirchoff, MD, a Chicago physician who specializes in pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation and has led a Catholic Medical Association guild for a decade; Michal Porubcin, MD, a hematologist-oncologist in East Moline, Ill.; Michael Hawking, MD, a Chicago hematologist-oncologist and medical school professor who has published research on assisted-death practices in Belgium and the Netherlands; and Brian Couri, MD, a Chicago physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist with more than 30 years in practice.
Also named as plaintiffs are Thomas Paprocki, a Roman Catholic bishop who oversees the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, and Lutheran Care Center, a 96-bed skilled nursing facility in Altamont, Ill. Bishop Paprocki’s diocese has institutional ties to Catholic health systems bound by church directives that prohibit cooperation with physician-assisted death; the complaint states that material cooperation with suicide is contrary to Catholic teaching.
The defendants are Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Secretary Mario Treto Jr. and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Sameer Vohra, MD, whose agencies are responsible for implementing and enforcing the law.
The complaint cites three U.S. Supreme Court precedents on end-of-life law — Washington v. Glucksberg, Vacco v. Quill and Gonzales v. Oregon — as it seeks to block the law before its September effective date.
In a response shared with Becker’s, the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Secretary said it could not comment on ongoing litigation.
Becker’s has reached out to the Illinois Department of Public Health and will update this article if more information becomes available.
At the Becker’s 32nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, taking place October 29-31 in Chicago, ASC leaders, surgeons and healthcare executives will explore strategies to drive growth, enhance operational performance, navigate reimbursement challenges and prepare for the future of ambulatory surgery. Apply for complimentary registration now.
