Cardinal Cupich, religious sisters, pharmacist sue Illinois over physician-assisted suicide law

Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich, two religious sister orders, and a local pharmacist sued Illinois this month over a pro-assisted suicide law that they attest would force them to violate their religious beliefs by requiring them to help terminally ill patients kill themselves, according to a Sept. 3 press release from the legal organization Becket. 

The suit Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. Prince, filed by Becket, asks a federal court to block the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (EOLOA) before it takes effect Sept. 12. Along with Cardinal Cupich, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and Catholic pharmacist Luke Vander Bleek are the plaintiffs. The Sisters and Bleek fulfill their ministries and work in the healthcare realm according to their Catholic beliefs, which affirms the dignity of human life from conception until natural death, according to Becket. 

“I became a pharmacist because I wanted to help people heal, never to hasten their deaths,” Bleek, owner of Fitzgerald Pharmacy in Morrison, said in the release. “But now Illinois wants my pharmacy to dispense prescriptions for suicide in violation of my Catholic beliefs. The state shouldn’t force me to choose between serving my neighbors and following my conscience.”  

In following their beliefs, the Catholic healthcare providers cannot prescribe or dispense deadly drugs, refer patients to obtain them, or facilitate a patient’s suicide. However, according to the release, the EOLOA “forces them to do exactly that.” Healthcare providers who refuse to participate in physician-assisted suicide are required to still talk to patients about this deadly “option” and participate in referring them to healthcare providers who could help them obtain physician-assisted suicide. Bleek and other pharmacists will be required to fill deadly prescriptions, or refer patients to another pharmacy that would provide them, Becket added. 

“Illinois also threatens religious caregivers for speaking a life-affirming message against suicide, imposing a gag order on their care,” the release continued. “EOLOA’s definition of coercion and undue influence is so broad that it risks punishing the Sisters and other healthcare providers in the Archdiocese simply for telling a suffering patient, ‘Don’t kill yourself. Jesus loves you. Your life is precious.’”

As Zeale News reported in August, Springfield Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, the Lutheran Care Center, and four Catholic physicians, who are represented by the Thomas More Society, are also seeking to block the law. On Aug. 21, Illinois agreed to a federal court order temporarily preventing the state from enforcing the challenged mandates against those plaintiffs while their lawsuit proceeds, according to a news release from the law firm.

“The Gospel calls us to uphold the inviolable dignity and worth of the human person, from life’s first moment to its natural end,” Cardinal Cupich said in the Becket release. “As Catholics, we oppose efforts to undermine human dignity by pushing our brothers and sisters toward suicide. We pray that the courts will protect our freedom to continue advocating and caring for the sick and dying as our faith demands.”

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