Are there circumstances where assisted suicide should be among the range of options available to someone dealing with serious mental health issues? Should we routinely euthanize people with diseases like Alzheimer’s based upon their advance wishes? Are there times when mature kids and teenagers should be able to get a doctor’s help to die?

OTTAWA – A study that claims euthanasia and assisted suicide could save the health-care system more than $100 million annually is ringing alarm bells among assisted-killing opponents.

OTTAWA – Helping someone contemplating death through euthanasia can be a simple as saying "hello."

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Congress took its first step toward blocking Washington D.C.’s doctor-prescribed suicide law on Thursday, but the action will need the support of both houses of Congress and the President.

OTTAWA – In Canadian politics, 2016 will be remembered as the year Canada legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide.

WASHINGTON – District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser Dec. 20 signed into law a bill allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medications to terminally ill patients who want to end their lives.

OTTAWA – The Atlantic Episcopal Assembly’s (AEA) pastoral reflection on “medical assistance in dying”has drawn harsh criticism, but a Canadian bioethicist says the polarization is not helpful.

Earlier this fall, the bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories released guidelines to help priests offer pastoral care to individuals and families contemplating voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. The guidelines were fully Catholic, comprehensive, compassionate and courageous, as detailed then by Peter Stockland in these pages.

PRETORIA, South Africa – While countries around the world such as Canada, Germany and Japan have passed legislation to legalize physician assisted suicide, one has ruled to reject it: South Africa.

MELBOURNE, Australia – The government of the Australian state of Victoria is looking to legalize euthanasia in 2017, but physicians have warned of the risk of diminishing palliative care, already under-utilized and underfunded.

CHUR, Switzerland – A Swiss bishop has instructed Catholic priests not to give last rites to people suspected of seeking assisted suicide, following a sharp rise in the practice in his country.

OTTAWA – New guidelines issued by the bishops of Atlantic Canada emphasize pastoral accompaniment for those who chose assisted suicide or euthanasia and seem to leave open the possibility of receiving the Sacraments and a Catholic funeral.

LONDON, England - Physician-assisted suicide has been a subject of controversy for several years, but Liz Carr is taking the issue somewhere it has never been before: the musical theatre.

EDMONTON –The onset of state-sanctioned euthanasia represents a “seismic shift” in values that the world will someday regret, said one of Canada’s pre-eminent bioethicists.

Fundamental freedoms are threatened by a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario policy that would force doctors to provide an “effective referral” for services such as abortion and assisted suicide even if they believe it to be medically and morally wrong, former Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth told about 30 protesters gathered in front of Queen's Park on Nov. 30.