Cardinal Cupich, women religious, Catholic pharmacist sue Illinois over assisted suicide law
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Chicago Province of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and an Illinois pharmacist filed a lawsuit against Illinois over its physician‑assisted suicide law set to take effect on September 12. The plaintiffs claim the law would force them to facilitate assisted deaths, violating Catholic teachings that uphold human dignity from birth to natural death. The lawsuit highlights the clash between the law—promoted as offering autonomy for terminally ill patients—and Catholic doctrine that condemns euthanasia and physician‑assisted suicide as morally unacceptable. Cardinal Cupich and the religious orders stress their commitment to compassionate care and reject any obligation to support assisted suicide, citing the Catechism’s condemnation of the practice. The case illustrates the broader debate over state‑level assisted‑suicide legislation and its impact on religious freedom and the right to refuse participation in end‑of‑life practices.
28 days ago
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, two Catholic religious orders, and an Illinois pharmacist filed a federal lawsuit on Sept. 3 seeking to prevent Illinois from enforcing its physician-assisted suicide law against them. The plaintiffs argue that the law conflicts with their religious convictions and could require Catholic caregivers to discuss, permit, or otherwise facilitate assisted suicide. 1 2
Signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in December 2025, the law permits doctors to prescribe lethal medication to qualifying terminally ill adults who want to end their lives. The law is scheduled to take effect Sept. 12, according to the OSV News report. 1 2
The lawsuit says Illinois health care providers, including the religious orders’ care homes, will be required to proactively discuss assisted suicide with patients and allow patients to carry it out in their facilities. The plaintiffs say refusing to comply could expose them to fines and other penalties. 2 3
The lawsuit was filed by Cupich, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Chicago Province of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and an Illinois pharmacist. The Carmelite Sisters operate St. Patrick’s Residence in Naperville, where the order provides care for older adults. 1 2
The plaintiffs contend that compliance would force the sisters and other Catholic caregivers either to abandon their beliefs about the sanctity of life or risk legal consequences. Their complaint argues that the First Amendment prevents Illinois from requiring them to participate in conduct they consider religiously prohibited. 2 3
Cupich said Catholics are called to uphold the dignity of every person from the beginning of life through natural death. He said the plaintiffs were asking the courts to protect their ability to care for and accompany sick and dying people according to their faith. 1 2
Mother Julie Marie, the Little Sisters’ Chicago provincial, said residents come to the order’s homes seeking care until natural death and should be able to receive that care without assisted suicide being introduced by the state. 1
Mother Mary Rose Heery, prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters, said the sisters promise vulnerable patients that their lives remain valuable and that they will not be abandoned. She said Illinois could not require the order to replace that commitment with assistance in ending patients’ lives. 2 3
Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the health care providers, argued that patients should be able to seek care, hope, and accompaniment without the government requiring assisted suicide to be part of the conversation. 1 2
Catholic teaching rejects euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide as morally unacceptable and contrary to the Fifth Commandment. Cupich and the religious orders presented the lawsuit as a defense of human dignity and religious freedom. 1
Supporters of the Illinois law describe physician-assisted suicide as a matter of autonomy and choice for suffering or terminally ill people. Opponents argue that it diminishes the value of human life and could leave ill, elderly, or dying people vulnerable to pressure or coercion. 1
The case follows an earlier Illinois lawsuit brought by Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, four Catholic doctors, a Lutheran nursing home, and other Catholic health care entities. A federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement for those particular plaintiffs after the state agreed to the restriction; the order did not apply statewide. 1 2
Religious orders and Catholic health care ministries also obtained a temporary shield from enforcement of New York’s assisted-suicide law in a separate lawsuit. The New York case involved the Carmelite Sisters, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. 1 2
Separately, disability-rights advocates have challenged assisted-suicide laws in Illinois, New York, Colorado, and Delaware, alleging that the laws discriminate against people with disabilities. 2 3*
Catholic doctrine versus state assisted‑suicide law
The Catholic Church holds that assisted suicide and euthanasia are intrinsically wrong—that is, wrong by their very nature, regardless of consent, suffering, or legal authorization. Human life is a gift entrusted by God, and no person has an unlimited right to dispose of his or her own life. Suicide objectively contradicts love of self, justice, charity, and God’s sovereignty over life and death.
Assisting suicide is morally wrong even when the person requests it, because it involves cooperation in an unjust act. Psychological distress, depression, fear, or coercion may reduce the individual’s personal culpability, but they do not change the objective nature of the act.
The Church teaches that laws legalizing or supporting assisted suicide or euthanasia are gravely unjust. The state’s role is to protect human life and promote peaceful coexistence, not to establish a supposed “right” to be killed or assisted in suicide. Such laws can endanger vulnerable persons—especially the elderly, disabled, seriously ill, depressed, or economically dependent—by creating pressure to regard their lives as burdensome or less valuable.
Catholics should therefore support public policies that protect life and oppose the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. This opposition may be expressed in cooperation with people of other religions or none, since the issue concerns fundamental human dignity and the foundation of civil society.
A healthcare professional may not prescribe, administer, supply, or directly facilitate lethal medication, even when civil law permits it. Legal permission does not make an immoral act morally permissible. The Church requires healthcare workers to exclude formal cooperation and direct material cooperation in euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Governments should protect conscientious objection. Where a law attempts to compel direct participation, a healthcare worker may have a grave duty to refuse, since “we must obey God rather than men.”
Rejecting assisted suicide does not mean prolonging suffering at all costs. Patients should receive compassionate accompaniment, appropriate medical care, and treatment directed toward preserving dignity until natural death. There is a morally important difference between:
The first is euthanasia; the second can be morally legitimate when death is not intended but follows from accepting the limits of medical treatment.
In summary: Catholic doctrine rejects assisted suicide and euthanasia, considers laws legalizing them gravely unjust, requires healthcare workers to refuse direct cooperation, and calls the state instead to protect life, relieve suffering, and ensure humane care for the sick and dying.