OTTAWA – Euthanasia opponents find it a “great irony” the physician who championed Quebec’s euthanasia law now has second thoughts.

A few weeks ago the Sunday New York Times Magazine ran a lengthy feature about a Vancouver Island man who had chosen to die by euthanasia. John Shields, a former priest who later married, was suffering from a rare disease that caused proteins to build up in his heart and painful nerve damage in his arms and legs, the Times story said.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has offered encouragement to Ontario’s bishops in their fight for conscience rights for health care workers.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Proposals to legalize euthanasia in the Australian state of Victoria are based on “misplaced compassion,” the local bishops said.

Rather than fighting to change the system which imposes euthanasia, health care professional bioethicist Bob Parke wants to create a private hospice that bans assisted killing and where dying will only come the natural way.

OTTAWA – The Catholic Women’s League (CWL) and the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) have condemned the Global TV mini-series Mary Kills People about a doctor who illegally euthanizes consenting patients.

While America entertains itself with the likes of Donald Trump and the presidential primaries, Canada is inching towards what’s bound to be a monumental decision with repercussions on both sides of the border. Euthanasia. State-sponsored suicide. And by inching I mean we’re barrelling towards it at breakneck speed.