‘Death’ by Deception on Halloween in Illinois | The American Spectator

In an attempt to conceal its true intent and deceive citizens, progressive Illinois lawmakers and their most generous enablers successfully embedded language legalizing assisted suicide into a food sanitation bill last week. Attaching the deadly suicide measure — just days before the legislative deadline — to Senate Bill 1950, an uncontroversial bill that originally focused on food preparation safety,  the death merchants made a calculated decision to block open debate and advance the legislation while shielding the bill’s true nature from public view.

Following a circuitous path marked by layers of deception and legislative sleight of hand, the ghoulish bill was narrowly approved by a 30-27 vote at 3 am on Halloween in the Illinois Senate at the conclusion of the fall veto session.

Originally promoted last spring by Democrat State Representative Robyn Gabel during an Illinois House Executive Committee hearing, the bill was described as a “trusted and time-tested medical practice that is part of the full spectrum of end of life care options.” Although there was some opposition from Republicans in the House, including a strong statement from Representative Bill Hauter, a practicing physician. Hauter decried the fact that the deadly measure that would be “fundamentally changing the practice of medicine” was being hidden in a “shell bill,” but it was too little, too late, and the shell game advanced to the Senate, where it passed. (RELATED: Delaware Becomes the Latest State to Make Medical Suicide Legal)

The bill now awaits a signature from Governor JB Pritzker. As one of the most progressive governors in the country, it is likely he will sign it, but the secret is out — and the pro-life community in Illinois and beyond is mobilizing to confront this serious breach of democratic integrity. Faithful Catholics, led by courageous voices like Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, are sounding the alarm and rallying against what they see as a covert assault on human dignity. (RELATED: The Horrific Assisted Suicide Boom in Canada)

In a letter to parishioners last week, Bishop Paprocki condemned the bill as “a grave moral evil” and warned that its passage “strikes at the heart of our shared commitment to protect the vulnerable.” The bishop wrote that “It is quite fitting that the forces of the culture of death in the Illinois General Assembly passed physician-assisted suicide on Oct. 31 — a day that, culturally, has become synonymous with glorifying death and evil. It’s also ironic that these pro-death legislators did it under the cloud of darkness at 2:54 am.” Urging Catholics across Illinois to contact Pritzker and demand a veto, the bishop called this a moment that “requires both courage and clarity.”

Unfortunately, the state’s most powerful lawmakers — including its governor — have offered neither courage nor clarity related to this legislation. But, then again, these lawmakers have had plenty of help in their duplicity from a powerful and very generous pro-assisted suicide industry, which fills their campaign coffers.

The Compassion and Choices “Action Network” — a lobbying organization promoting assisted suicide — openly admits that “To achieve nationwide end-of-life autonomy, strategic support for state legislative candidates who champion our cause is crucial. In collaboration with Democracy Engine, we developed Power Compassion, an online donation platform showcasing state office candidates committed to the end-of-life options movement. By giving to these campaigns, you help us build the political strength needed to pass aid-in-dying legislation around the country.” (RELATED: I Help People Heal. Britain Just Gave Up.)

Greed — not compassion — is fueling the assisted suicide movement in the country. Power Compassion openly acknowledges this fact — and promises to help any candidate for office who pledges their support for assisted suicide. Compassion and Choices — formerly known as the Hemlock Society — has continued its commitment to perfecting the art of suicide created by the Hemlock Society’s infamous founder, Derek Humphry. Created in 2005 through the merger of two end-of-life advocacy organizations — Compassion in Dying and End-of-Life Choices, the latter of which evolved from the Hemlock Society. Today, Compassion and Choices is the largest nonprofit in the U.S. advocating for medical aid in dying and expanded end-of-life options. Power Compassion is their advocacy arm — donating freely to the campaigns of those willing to sell their souls to the cause of death.

The name change was necessary after the many scandals involving the Hemlock Society’s founder’s involvement in a controversial case in 1986, in which he and his wife Ann Wickett Humphry assisted in the suicides of her parents by impersonating doctors to obtain lethal drugs. The incident raised serious ethical and legal questions about the boundaries of assisted suicide advocacy. Humphrey’s name became somewhat toxic after having helped his first wife, Jean, commit suicide in 1975, and then again when his estranged second wife, Anne, took her own life.

That is really the problem with the assisted suicide movement. The movement is populated by purveyors of death who know that even with the promises of a peaceful, painless death, suicide itself remains a hard sell. And although the PACS of progressive politicians are more than happy to accept donations from the assisted suicide industry, these kinds of issues have a way of eventually making us aware of the very real consequences of assisted suicide on everyone it touches.

After he assisted in the suicide of his mother, Andrew Solomon wrote in a 1996 New Yorker article entitled “A Death of One’s Own”, that “the comfort of control that his mother exerted gave her solace” but he continued, “the fact is that a suicide is a suicide — over determined, sad and somewhat toxic to everyone it touches.” In his best-selling book, The Noonday Demon, Solomon details the ways in which his family fell apart in the aftermath of the suicide. Solomon writes that he rarely spoke with his father or his brother anymore and details the futile effort to treat his depression through a regimen of sometimes more than a dozen pills each day. Having participated in his mother’s death, Solomon admits that he, too, has viewed suicide as an option to escape his psychic pain.

Pro-life advocates have long warned of a growing “culture of death.” Even secular sociologists recognize that suicide can spread through communities as a form of social contagion.

Under the cloak of darkness of Halloween night, Illinois lawmakers thought that no one would notice their macabre maneuver. But the disguise has fallen, and the truth is exposed, and now is the time to demand that Governor Pritzker reject this deceptive and dangerous bill.

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