Illinois now faces an important choice with its proposed death with dignity legislation : whether to extend to terminally ill adults the right to decide, in consultation with medical professionals, how and when their lives should end. Supporting this legislation is not about hastening death; it is about honoring autonomy, reducing needless suffering and ensuring compassion at life’s most difficult threshold.

Medical technology has prolonged life in extraordinary ways but has also prolonged dying. Patients with advanced cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or end-stage organ failure often describe their final months as marked by unrelenting pain, loss of dignity and dependence they neither want nor believe their families should bear. While palliative care and hospice provide essential c

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