Let’s play another guessing game.

On Nov. 20, I predicted we wouldn’t finish the decade without at least one lawsuit alleging a police officer improperly accessed a smartphone under the guise of the new mobile ID law. Today’s question involves a much heavier topic: Senate Bill 1950, which allows terminally ill adults to ask a doctor to prescribe lethal medication.

The House passed the bill 63-42 in May, and the Senate concurred 30-27 in late October. Gov. JB Pritzker signed the bill Friday. All along the way, there have been passionate arguments in favor and opposition, along with sadly typical procedural critiques. (For example, as introduced, the bill amended the Sanitary Food Preparation Act until a House floor amendment gutted the original language to replace it with the “End-Of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act.” And the final Senate vote happened in the middle of the night during veto session.)

Some argue chiefly on moral terms. Typifying that stance is state Rep. Bill Hauter, R- Morton, a doctor, who said, “Regardless of good intentions, physician-assisted suicide fundamentally breaches our sacred oath and forever changes the patient-physician relationship. This is one of the many reasons that the Illinois State Medical Society, the state’s largest physician advocacy organization, stands against it.”

Then there’s Lombard’s Deb Robertson, three years and seven treatment cycles into a terminal neuroendocrine carcinoma diagnosis. State Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, sponsored SB 1950 and refers to it as “Deb’s Law.” Holmes’ release after the bill signing includes a quote from Robertson: “I love my life, I don’t want to die. I love my family but I am still going to die. Should the time come, I pray the state will allow me this option, to die peacefully and on my own terms.”

Setting aside slippery slope or cultural arguments, SB 1950 (like any law) warrants an analysis of its own terms with respect to potential violations and enforcement mechanisms.

According to Capitol News Illinois, Holmes argued there are “over 20 guardrails in place” against coercion, abuse and forgery, including potential felony charges. No doctors, providers or pharmacists would be required to participate; some health systems have already announced they’ll abstain.

Eligibility requires two different doctors issuing a terminal diagnosis of up to six months. A doctor must assess the patient’s mental capacity to make their own decisions and provide information on all other end-of-life care options. The patient – and no one else – has to make oral and written requests for the drugs.

Holmes said only 62% of people who get a lethal prescription actually take the drugs and noted Oregon, after enacting a similar law in 1997, hasn’t had substantiated cases of coercion or abuse.

Will we say the same in Illinois in 2053?

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.