A cold winter is well underway in the American Midwest, and the ice is taking many forms. The weather has been dark and forbidding, but the other frozen form is in the shape of assisted suicide. On December 12, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) signed into law a bill that makes his state the 13th jurisdiction in the nation (assisted suicide is already lawful in 11 other states and the District of Columbia) to permit physician-assisted suicide, euphemistically referred to as medical aid in dying, or MAID. As a nation with a concentration of liberal public policies on its West and East coasts, the United States now has its first heartland state to embrace a practice that is spreading around the world.
Coincidence or not, the assisted suicide debate is taking place against a background of soaring health care costs and governments operating at historically high deficits. Illinois is not an exception to the general trend, with a projected budget deficit of $267 million in 2026 that could rise as high as $2 billion in fiscal year 2027. Much of the deficit is attributed to spiking pension costs for retirees. Illinois is in the second-lowest tier for total fertility among the states, hovering in the range of 1.50 to 1.59 children per woman. Its law imposes no limits of substance on abortion. The pressure under the new MAID law to choose death near the end of life is likely to be as intense there as it has proved to be everywhere else assisted suicide has been legalized.
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