CHICAGO, IL — Five national or statewide religious health care associations and two new individual plaintiffs—together representing Catholic hospitals, health care facilities, and numerous physicians and nurses across Illinois—have joined an ongoing federal lawsuit filed by Thomas More Society challenging the state’s assisted suicide law, adding their claims in an amended complaint filed yesterday, just two days before the law takes effect.

The new plaintiffs include the Illinois Catholic Health Association, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the Catholic Medical Association, the National Association of Catholic Nurses, and the Catholic Psychotherapy Association, along with Dr. William Crevier, a physician, and Carol Crevier, a soon-to-be advanced practice registered nurse. Together, the new organizational plaintiffs represent over 95% of Catholic health institutions in Illinois and more than 13,000 health care professionals nationwide who object to the law’s mandates on conscience grounds.

The First Amended Complaint significantly broadens the relief sought in Mary Keen Kirchoff, M.D., et al. v. Treto, et al., which Thomas More Society filed on August 11 on behalf of a group of Illinois physicians, a Catholic bishop, and a Lutheran nursing home. Like the original plaintiffs—who won emergency protection from the court just weeks ago—the new plaintiffs say the state is forcing them to violate their consciences and their faith or face severe legal consequences.

“In just weeks, this case has grown to include a coalition of physicians, nurses, and national associations representing thousands of Catholic and Christian health care professionals across Illinois,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society. “We already secured emergency protection for our original plaintiffs, and now we're seeking to extend that same protection to these additional plaintiffs and the members they represent.”

“The age-old principle: first, do no harm, which has its roots in the Sixth Commandment, allows patients the peace of mind that the physician caring for them would do whatever necessary to preserve their life. Legislation like this robs patients of that confidence in their caregivers, converting everyone with an RN, MD, NP, PA license into a potential ‘death-guide,’ rather than a servant of God, the giver of life,” said Dr. William Crevier.

Kirchoff v. Treto challenges Illinois’s “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act” (“EOLO”) requires health care professionals and entities to inform patients of the alleged “benefits” of physician-assisted suicide, refer or transfer patients to someone “able and willing” to help them die, and refrain from providing information the state might deem “misinformation” discouraging assisted suicide. The law also requires doctors to omit from death certificates that a lethal substance obtained under EOLO contributed to a patient’s death and threatens objecting practitioners and entities with fines of up to $10,000 per violation, loss of licensure, and criminal prosecution.

Following Thomas More Society’s first filing earlier this month, Illinois agreed to a federal court order temporarily barring enforcement of EOLO’s mandates against TMS’s original plaintiffs. That order will remain in place while the parties await a decision in a related case, Schroeder v. Treto, currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

The amended complaint retains Kirchoff v. Treto’s claims that EOLO’s mandates violate the First Amendment’s protections for free speech, free exercise of religion, and expressive association; the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause; the Americans with Disabilities Act; and the Affordable Care Act’s conscience protections for health care entities that decline to participate in causing a patient’s death.

"The First Amendment protects the rights of Catholic and Christian doctors, hospitals, and health care ministries to reject assisted suicide and heal and care for the ill and infirm in accord with their consciences,” added Breen. "The new assisted suicide law flagrantly violates those rights by forcing dedicated healthcare professionals to promote deadly drugs to their patients.”

Read the First Amended Complaint in Mary Keen Kirchoff, M.D., et al. v. Treto, et al., filed in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois - Eastern Division, here.