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 comfort, not all suffering can be alleviated by medication or support services. The End-of-Life Options Act would offer an additional option and would be strictly regulated and available only to patients whose conditions are irreversible and whose prognosis is six months or less to live.

Critics often voice two concerns: that such laws may be abused and that they would devalue life. Experience elsewhere tells a different story. States such as Oregon, Washington and California have had similar laws for years, with comprehensive safeguards ensuring informed consent, multiple physician confirmations, waiting periods and protections against coercion. Data from these states consistently demonstrates that the laws are used carefully and sparingly, most often by individuals who are already enrolled in hospice programs. Far from devaluing life, the option affirms each person’s right to define what constitutes comfort, dignity and peace.

Support for this policy also reflects deep compassion for families. Watching a loved one suffer needlessly creates profound emotional and financial strain. Allowing patients to avoid prolonged agony can offer loved ones peace in mourning as they remember their family members rather than their final torment.

Illinois should not lag behind in recognizing that dying is both a medical and moral reality. Just as our state protects the right to make decisions about medical treatment, it should also protect the right to decline further suffering when death is imminent and inevitable.

The End-of-Life Options Act is not about choosing death; it is about choosing autonomy, mercy and humanity. It is time for Illinois to affirm that dignity should not end where suffering begins.

— John Pacay, Northbrook

Preventing tragedy

Just a week into the school year, and another shooting has shattered a community — this time not by a student, yet the warning signs remain.

The next time, it could be a student. A young person silently struggling, who could have been helped long before their suffering turned into something unthinkable.

We say we want to normalize mental health and support students. So why aren’t we demanding better? Why do we wait until tragedy strikes, instead of being proactive? If prevention is possible, silence is not an option.

That’s why, on the stage at TEDx Raleigh, I shared an idea to break this cycle: embedding early mental health screenings into school life, just as we already do for hearing and vision.

In the U.S., most children aren’t asked about their mental health until crisis hits. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for ages 10 to 14, and anxiety and depression rates have significantly increased in the past decade. This suffering doesn’t just remain internal — it often spills outward. The U.S. Secret Service’s threat assessment team has found that nearly every act of school violence involved a student showing signs of distress that were missed or misunderstood.

Yet our national approach remains reactive: more police and lockdown drills. Important, yes — but it’s treating the fire after the house has burned down, instead of checking the wiring before it sparks.

Early screening can be simple: confidential wellness questionnaires, administered with parental consent. Not to diagnose but to ask: How are you doing? Are you struggling with anxiety, stress or thoughts of self-harm? Do you feel safe in school? Answers could connect at-risk students with support before pain erupts into crisis, while also showing kids their mental health matters.

States are starting to pave the way. In Illinois, lawmakers passed a measure expanding youth mental health screenings. These programs, while not perfect, prove what’s possible.

The pushback is familiar. There are concerns about privacy or schools overstepping. But these screenings would be opt-in, transparent and far less costly than crisis — both in dollars and in lives.

As this school year unfolds, let’s not wait for the next headline or vigil. The time is now to make early mental health screenings a normalized part of prevention — so kids can focus on learning and growing, not fearing for their lives.

— Amelia Kelley, clinician and podcast host, “The Sensitivity Doctor” 

Biometric law a target

The recent editorial on our state’s groundbreaking biometric law (“Biometric privacy laws must evolve with the times,” Aug. 26) got one thing right: The environment around our personal data is “changing by the second.” Indeed, our personal data and our very actions are increasingly surveilled in a private/public surveillance infrastructure supercharged by artificial intelligence. But we take issue with the Tribune Editorial Board’s prescription for dealing with the challenges of these changes.

We should not weaken Illinois’ 2008 Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Rather, we should maintain that law and strengthen other protections around data privacy now, before it is too late.

BIPA, widely supported by representatives and senators from both political parties and signed into law by the Illinois governor, recognizes that information like our fingerprints and face scans cannot be easily changed. It is much easier to get a new Social Security number than a new face. That is why BIPA placed the requirement on entities that want to use our biometric information to simply get our permission before using that information. BIPA has worked through the years by holding companies accountable that willfully break the law. As a result, we see regular attempts from those entities — especially Big Tech companies — that do not want individuals to have a right to go to court to hold them accountable.

But the editorial board seems to suggest we abandon these protections so that Illinois can compete for hosting data centers that are at the core of advancements in artificial intelligence. The truth is that data centers are not truly impacted by BIPA. The law requires notice and consent for collection and use of biometrics. Because data centers store information for third parties, they do not take “active steps” to obtain biometric information. But exempting these centers entirely would invite them to stray into storage and sharing of our biometric information while evading the accountability of BIPA.

Courts also have consistently stated that the catchall prohibiting entities from “otherwise (obtaining)” biometric identifiers without notice and consent is “best construed as requiring something beyond passive possession or receipt,” and requires an “active step to obtain” biometric data.

The editorial ignores that BIPA is a constant target for companies that want legal cover to convert information about us into a commodity. We should not abandon our law given this reality.

— Stephen Ragan, policy and advocacy strategist, American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

Commemorating 9/11

On Sept. 11, 2001, the world stood still. Every life lost changed a family forever, and the pain still echoes in our collective memory. It reminds us how important it is to speak out clearly and unequivocally against the use of religion to justify violence and harm against any living being.

As a young Muslim, I feel a deep responsibility to speak out against those who claim to act in the name of my faith to perpetuate violence and to stand firmly for peace and justice. Every human life is sacred. My faith is rooted in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s motto, “Love For All, Hatred For None” which calls us to serve all humanity peacefully and with love.

We commemorate this tragedy each year by holding blood drives — to honor life by donating blood. Let us honor the memory of those we have lost with action by rejecting extremism, building bridges across faiths and coming together to serve humanity with love.

— Tooba Malik, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

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