Earlier this fall, the bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories released guidelines to help priests offer pastoral care to individuals and families contemplating voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. The guidelines were fully Catholic, comprehensive, compassionate and courageous, as detailed then by Peter Stockland in these pages.

PRETORIA, South Africa – While countries around the world such as Canada, Germany and Japan have passed legislation to legalize physician assisted suicide, one has ruled to reject it: South Africa.

MELBOURNE, Australia – The government of the Australian state of Victoria is looking to legalize euthanasia in 2017, but physicians have warned of the risk of diminishing palliative care, already under-utilized and underfunded.

CHUR, Switzerland – A Swiss bishop has instructed Catholic priests not to give last rites to people suspected of seeking assisted suicide, following a sharp rise in the practice in his country.

OTTAWA – New guidelines issued by the bishops of Atlantic Canada emphasize pastoral accompaniment for those who chose assisted suicide or euthanasia and seem to leave open the possibility of receiving the Sacraments and a Catholic funeral.

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.

Fundamental freedoms are threatened by a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario policy that would force doctors to provide an “effective referral” for services such as abortion and assisted suicide even if they believe it to be medically and morally wrong, former Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth told about 30 protesters gathered in front of Queen's Park on Nov. 30.

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.

WASHINGTON – The District of Columbia City Council Nov. 15 approved a bill allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medications to terminally ill patients who want to end their lives.

Showing respect for human dignity should never include the "false mercy" of helping someone prematurely end their life, Cardinal Thomas Collins told a packed audience Nov. 10 at the 37th annual Cardinal's Dinner in Toronto.

WASHINGTON – In this year's election, voters went against nearly all of the ballot initiatives backed by Catholic leaders and advocates, except the referendums on minimum wage increases and gun control measures.

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.