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.

One obvious failing of legalized assisted suicide is that Canada now recognizes a person’s right to receive a quick exit but fails to grant terminally ill people an offsetting right to humane care until their natural death.

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities has called for increased efforts and "renewed vigor" to stop legalized physician-assisted suicide after the practice was approved by voters in Colorado and the District of Columbia City Council.

A “culture of death” is threatening the lives of our elderly, warns Bishop Noel Simard.

OTTAWA – With euthanasia occurring in Quebec at triple government predictions, obtaining accurate statistics on medically assisted deaths across Canada is almost impossible and could lead to abuse, according to anti-euthanasia advocates.

WINDSOR, Ont. – Opponents of assisted suicide face “significant challenges” following the Canadian government’s official endorsement of medically-aided death in legislation enacted last June, a symposium was told.

TORONTO – It’s rare for an hour-long, academic lecture to get a standing ovation, but Dr. Ewan Goligher earned thunderous applause from about 100 people who turned up on a cold, rainy night to hear his defence of medical conscience.

Serving the sick and the dying has always been central to the mission of the Church. However, in light of recent legislation that legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in some cases, dioceses across Canada are giving renewed focus to pastoral care.

TORONTO – Dr. Luigi Castagna doesn’t think of practicing medicine as a protest movement. But a stalemate over conscience rights for doctors who object to physician-assisted dying may change that.

OTTAWA – Ontario's bishops are putting their weight behind doctors who are going to court to defend their religious and conscience rights to refuse to refer patients for assisted suicide.

There is a dangerous misconception that because the courts and Parliament have decided people can obtain an assisted suicide, health care institutions therefore have a legal obligation to assess candidates and perform these killings.

Bishops in Alberta and the Northwest Territories issued what has been prosaically called a series of guidelines to deal with so-called medical aid in dying. In truth, the Vademecum for Priests and Parishes beautifully illuminates, and reminds readers, what it means to live a Catholic life.

After wading into the social and legal morass of assisted suicide Canadian Catholics are now confronting its spiritual implications — and receiving no clear answers.

Reading through the obituary recently of iconic Canadian author and baseball lover W.P. Kinsella, one paragraph jumped off the pages of the Globe and Mail; dripping with irony.