MANCHESTER, England – The president of the Catholic Medical Association in the United Kingdom has accused the professional body for U.K. physicians of "rigging" a poll on euthanasia.

Britain’s Royal College of Physicians has adopted a neutral position on assisted suicide until they hear back from British doctors on whether they favour changing United Kingdom laws against doctors helping their patients commit suicide.

Canadian Physicians for Life is mobilizing its members for a grassroots appeal to politicians to protect doctors who do not wish to participate in any way in the assisted suicide of patients.

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Hawaii's law legalizing assisted suicide went into effect last week, but many physicians and pharmacists are choosing not to prescribe or dispense the needed medication.

EDMONTON – Citing the needs of fragile patients, Covenant Health has clarified how assessments are done in its facilities for patients who want to end their lives under provisions of Canada’s assisted suicide and euthanasia law.

OTTAWA – Palliative care advocates are applauding a new national framework document that has adopted an international definition of palliative care that excludes euthanasia and assisted suicide as elements of patient care. 

As Parliament awaits the imminent arrival of a report on assisted suicide that may make a bad situation even worse, it’s worth noting some chilling stories from the first countries to legalize medically induced death. This could be our future.

On rare occasions I get clear signals of what needs to be done in my life. When it comes, it arrives through people I respect. Each gives me the answer I need but I did not know I needed till I heard it. 

VANCOUVER – The rate of medically-assisted deaths on Vancouver Island is about five times higher than in the rest of the country.

EDMONTON – At what point does a health care provider become complicit in the act of medically-assisted death? 

Canada’s sudden withdrawal from the World Medical Association is likely due to a Canadian delegation feeling wounded and angry after their proposal to alter the world body’s code of ethics on euthanasia was resoundingly rejected, according to a Canadian doctor.

A grim picture of Canadians dying amid the noise and bustle of hospital acute care wards, unable to access quality palliative care, emerges from the first-ever comprehensive, national assessment of palliative care by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

TORONTO – In a prestigious medical journal, doctors from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children have laid out policies and procedures for administering medically assisted death to children, including scenarios where the parents would not be informed until after the child dies.

CORNWALL – Canada’s Catholic bishops aim to have palliative care resources available in every parish to help Catholics grapple with suffering and dying under a regime of legal euthanasia.

VATICAN – Caring for the sick, especially those near death, cannot be reduced simply to giving them medicine, but must include providing healing and comfort that gives their lives value and meaning, Pope Francis said.