As Illinois prepares to usher in assisted suicide on Sept. 12, Republican House District 17 candidate Jim Geldermann is sounding an urgent warning that vulnerable patients facing illness, financial strain and the fear of becoming a burden could be pushed toward death when what they need is support.

Geldermann is drawing on 15 years of ministry work with people who were actively dying as he raises concerns about Illinois’ new medical aid-in-dying law.

The End of Life Options Act, known as “Deb’s Law,” was announced by Gov. JB Pritzker in December 2025 and signed into law on Dec. 12. Illinois became the 12th state to authorize medical aid in dying for certain terminally ill patients. The law takes effect Sept. 12, 2026.

The law is facing two legal challenges seeking to prevent it from taking effect.

Geldermann, who was involved in and ran ministry programs through Our Lady of Perpetual Help for 15 years “for the actively dying,” supports those efforts.  Geldermann said his experiences accompanying people at the end of their lives have shaped his opposition to assisted suicide.

“Some of the people I visited, I would be with them for a year or two before they passed,” Geldermann told North Cook News. “Other people, you might be a week.”

He said those experiences convinced him that end-of-life care is often about sharing a person's burdens rather than eliminating suffering.

“When you come and you sit with somebody and share their burden with them, it gives them the ability to share with you,” Geldermann said.

Geldermann said he believes that approach is particularly important for people who may feel they have become a burden on their families.

“So people who are considering suicide, they're terminally ill. Their number one reason is they don't want to be a burden,” he said. “They don't wanna drive their family into debt.”

He said his ministry experience exposed him to the ways families can come together during a person's final days.

“I had a woman tell me once, you know she just, she climbed in the bed with her mother as she took her last breath,” Geldermann said. “And the stories are just…you didn't say I'm sorry for your loss. It's, you don't tell me about the last week.”

Under the law, adults with a terminal illness expected to result in death within six months may request medication to end their lives. Two physicians must confirm the terminal diagnosis, while patients must demonstrate decision-making capacity, receive information about other end-of-life options, including hospice and palliative care, make multiple oral and written requests, and be capable of self-administering the medication.

The law includes safeguards intended to prevent coercion and abuse, including criminal penalties for coercing a patient or falsifying a request. Patients may withdraw their requests at any time, healthcare professionals are not required to participate, and healthcare organizations may prohibit employees from providing aid-in-dying services while working for the organization.

Supporters say the legislation gives terminally ill patients greater autonomy, dignity and control over end-of-life decisions, while opponents have raised concerns about coercion, discrimination, patient protections and conflicts with religious and moral beliefs.

“We need to start standing up to it,” Geldermann said.

Geldermann said he has been working with Catholic Church representatives as the implementation date approaches.

“September 12th is assisted suicide when the law goes into effect,” Geldermann said. “So we're working with the archdiocese and their ‘respect life’ people, and the state's bishops are going to supposedly get together, have a workshop on it.” 

He said the goal is to encourage greater civic engagement around the issue.

“We want to get people more involved in that,” he said.

Geldermann also said he recently met with Illinois Right to Life and is following legislative developments related to the law and other life issues.

“We had a pretty good meeting with Illinois Right to Life,” he said. “They have a monthly meeting on the state of all the different legislation and stuff like that.”

Geldermann said he believes religious communities have an important role in the public debate about compassion and assisted suicide.

He connected that argument to a concept he described as “false compassion” noting that opponents are “coming out really strong on this empathetic suicide.” 

“That's really what we got to start calling people out for is – they sound compassionate, but every time they keep raising the victim of the murderer over the murdered,” Geldermann said.

Geldermann said he views the legislation as part of a broader cultural debate over how society responds to suffering.

“I don't look at assisted suicide as a sin, but in the true nature of sin, putting your will above all else is what sin is, and making that decision like that,” he said.

He also expressed concern about decisions involving people who may be particularly vulnerable to outside influence.

“But then when you start working into people who are easily influenced,” Geldermann said. “Or it's really coming down that we're starting to see a lot of articles that we don't have a mental health crisis in this country. We have a Mental Health Profession Crisis in this country.”

One example of the concerns surrounding assisted suicide is the story of Roger Foley, an Ontario man with a severe degenerative neurological condition who has been hospitalized for a decade.

Foley alleged that hospital staff repeatedly raised assisted suicide while he was seeking adequate home care support. 

Foley recorded conversations with hospital personnel discussing the cost of his care and MAID, which he said demonstrated pressure to consider ending his life rather than receiving the care he needed.

In Illinois, two lawsuits are now challenging the law. 

A federal lawsuit was filed Aug. 11 by Springfield Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, four Illinois doctors, and a Lutheran nursing home. 

Filed by the Thomas More Society, the suit argues that the law violates religious freedom and free speech protections under the First and 14th Amendments. The plaintiffs object to provisions they say could require religious healthcare institutions or individual providers to facilitate access to assisted suicide, including by transferring medical records to another provider.

The lawsuit also challenges language prohibiting healthcare providers from using “misinformation” to obstruct access to services under the law. The plaintiffs argue the provision is vague and could subject providers to fines, professional license consequences or criminal prosecution.

A separate lawsuit filed in June on behalf of several disability rights organizations argues that the law lacks clear, objective eligibility standards and could expose people with disabilities to pressure from insurers or healthcare providers to choose an earlier death, particularly those who lack resources for extended medical care.

The suit also alleges inadequate safeguards against coercion, abuse and misdiagnosis and raises concerns about the law's mental-health evaluation requirements.

Geldermann's concerns about assisted suicide are part of a broader record of civic and political activity. Drawing on his decades of experience working with those with substance abuse issues, he has raised concerns about medical decision-making.

“I've had over 40 years experience working with drug addicts and alcoholics,” Geldermann said.

He said he believes financial incentives can influence healthcare policy and described what he sees as recurring problems in the treatment industry.

Geldermann also cited his opposition to abortion and other policies concerning reproductive and transgender healthcare as part of his broader views on protecting human life. He said he believes communities should respond to people in crisis through personal support and service rather than relying solely on laws.

“Laws, laws are amoral. They're not rooted in morality,” Geldermann said. “It's here's an Act. Here's the consequences. Very simple.”

He argued that legislation alone cannot resolve complex personal crises.

“So passing a law for abortion, isn't going to fix it,” he said. “It's how do we minister to people so that the woman will want to have the baby?”

Geldermann is challenging four-term incumbent State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview), for the Illinois House of Representatives in District 17 in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election.

Gong-Gershowitz voted in favor of the bill. 

The 17th State House District includes portions of Cook County covering parts of Evanston, New Trier, Niles, and Northfield townships, as well as Glenview, Golf, Morton Grove, Northbrook, Skokie, and Wilmette.