OTTAWA - Should the federal government accept the recommendations of its special committee on assisted death, it will threaten the existence of Canada’s faith-based health care institutions, says the Coalition for HealthCARE.

OTTAWA - The special Parliamentary committee on physician-assisted dying recommended Feb. 25 euthanasia for the mentally ill and opened the way for euthanasia of consenting minors.

OTTAWA - In the face of political and public criticism, a Liberal directive that would have forced its MPs to vote the party line on an upcoming assisted-dying bill has been put on hold.

OTTAWA -  The conscience rights of doctors and health care workers should not be allowed to interfere with a patient’s “right” to a medically assisted death, claimed a university professor from the faculties of law and medicine at Dalhousie University.

With doctor-assisted suicide now legal in Quebec and available across Canada to anyone granted permission from a Superior Court judge, bishops and pastors will face new pastoral dilemmas.

OTTAWA - It would be inappropriate for a person intent on assisted suicide to request the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, said Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast.

In a presentation made Feb. 3 in Ottawa to the Special Joint Committee on Physician-assisted Dying, Cardinal Thomas Collins, appearing on behalf of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience, opposed physician-assisted suicide and urged lawmakers to protect the conscience rights of health-care providers. Here is a text of his submission.

OTTAWA - Bioethicist Margaret Somerville warned up to 12,000 people could be euthanized annually in Canada if a new law does not ensure euthanasia is exceptional, rare and used only as a last resort.

OTTAWA - The upcoming federal law regarding physician-assisted death must respect the conscience rights of doctors and other health-care workers, Cardinal Thomas Collins told a Parliamentary committee.

Advocates in favour of wider access to assisted suicide have dominated parliamentary committee hearings that will help craft a new assisted-suicide law, with little opposition so far from religious voices.

OTTAWA - Physician-assisted death legislation could include competent children under the age of 18, a legal expert told a Parliamentary committee Jan. 26.

OTTAWA - Legislation that tries to restrict assisted suicide and euthanasia to the terminally ill would likely fail a court challenge, a prominent constitutional lawyer told a Parliamentary committee.

After years writing about euthanasia as the religion reporter for the National Post, followed by two years of public talks to convince Canadians that government-sanctioned killing would be a disaster, I think I have finally figured out what bothers me the most about what is taking place in our country: the disturbing lack of imagination that has taken over the public psyche about how to deal with people who are suffering.

The federal government has been given four more months to come up with new laws and regulations to govern the practice of doctor-assisted suicide.

The first death by legal euthanasia in Canadian history has occurred, according to a Quebec healthcare spokesperson.