Momentum Builds for Medical Aid in Dying

Lawmakers in 10 states—including Illinois—­ are debating the issue known as Medical Aid in Dying, which would allow patients to make this private decision about how and when to die
by Bonnie Miller Rubin

BRENDA BOUTTE was diagnosed with stage 4 thyroid cancer in 1996, followed by metastatic lung cancer in 2020. Three years later, she and her husband relocated from Colorado to Illinois to be closer to their daughters and grandchildren. But while the 58-year-old gained more family time, she didn’t realize she was sacrificing something else: The ability to control her own fate with life-ending medications.

“If I had known, I never would have moved,” said Boutte, who lives in Richmond, a far northwest Chicago suburb. “Thank goodness I retained my residency in Colorado for just this purpose.” 

Like Boutte, an increasing number of Americans are seeking lethal medications obtained from their doctors so they can have the option of deciding how and when they die.

It’s a long way from the days of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Detroit-area pathologist who helped more than 100 terminally ill patients end their lives in the 1990s. Known as “Dr. Death,” he was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and served eight years in prison.

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