OTTAWA -- As the federal government launches a public consultation on laws governing assisted suicide, opponents are calling any move to expand the practice proof of the slippery slope they have long predicted.

VATICAN CITY -- Health care professionals always must "promote the dignity and life of each person and reject any compromise in the direction of euthanasia, assisted suicide or suppression of life, even in the case of terminal illness," Pope Francis said.

As Ottawa prepares to rewrite Canada’s euthanasia law, palliative care doctors and hospice operators are urging lawmakers to acknowledge that palliative care and medically induced death are separate and distinct things.

As Alberta debates a private member’s bill to protect conscience rights for doctors and other health care providers, Ontario’s government is saying little about a lack of protection for doctors forced to provide referrals for assisted suicide, abortion and other procedures.

CORNWALL, Ont. -- The Nova Scotia Health Authority has assured a Catholic health facility, St. Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish, that it will not have to provide assisted suicide within the hospital.

METUCHEN, N.J. -- New Jersey's new law allowing assisted suicide, effective Aug. 1, "points to an "utter failure" on the part of government and indeed all society, said Bishop James F. Checchio of Metuchen.

More than one in every 100 deaths in Canada is administered by a doctor, according to the latest national statistics on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Ontario was home to 1,499 instances of assisted suicide last year, a 77.8-per-cent increase over 2017, according to numbers released by Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner.

As the saying goes, no news is good news.

OTTAWA – Euthanasia opponents welcomed news that Canada’s new Attorney General David Lametti says the Liberal government has no plans to expand access to assisted suicide in the near future.

New evidence heard in court has given Ontario’s medical conscientious objectors renewed hope.

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.