OTTAWA -- The Catholic Church is doubling down on its efforts to encourage increased government and societal support for palliative care as the best way to help Canadians experience a “dignified natural death” as a barrage of Canadian court decisions continue to chip away at the safeguards surrounding assisted suicide in the country.

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.

OTTAWA – Canada’s Catholic Bishops have joined with an interfaith coalition to endorse a private member’s bill that lays the foundation for a national palliative care strategy.