VANCOUVER -- A heated debate about whether a 10-bed hospice in Delta, B.C., should offer assisted suicide may come to a climax in February.

I write a lot about euthanasia and associated issues. I will not dispute this nor will I apologize. What I think drives me is not only the abhorrence of such an evil practice but that there are ways to safeguard ourselves and our friends and family from this evil. However, to a large extent we are failing to do so. We need to wake up.

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.