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.

TORONTO - Catholic bishops, anti-euthanasia activists and doctors all know they’re not going to get what they want out of a court-mandated law regulating doctor-assisted suicide likely to be introduced into Parliament this month, but they’re still trying to limit the damage.

To read the comments in various newspapers and on web sites, the Church has no place in national policy debates, including the current deliberation on assisted suicide. Of course that’s nonsense at any time of year but it seems particularly absurd at Easter.

A new ethics guide on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia recommends that family doctors who cannot find ethical common ground with patients who wish to die help those patients find another doctor.