Requiring doctors to remain pillars of integrity while chipping at their moral underpinning is an odious contradiction. Yet that is what the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario proposes with a draconian new policy that tramples on conscience and religious rights.

VATICAN CITY - Legalizing euthanasia risks undermining people's access to loving, holistic care as they face the natural end of their life, many experts at a Vatican conference said.

OTTAWA - Margaret Somerville has called on Parliamentarians to "have a backbone" in dealing with euthanasia in Canada.

Hang on for dear life.

Unfortunately, the dearness of life seems to be dying a not-so-slow death.

OTTAWA - The federal Conservatives intend to undertake extensive consultations and still meet the one-year deadline set by the Supreme Court of Canada when it struck down the laws against assisted suicide in the Carter decision Feb. 6.

A number of voices have called on the federal government to trump the Supreme Court’s assisted-suicide decision with the notwithstanding clause — the controversial section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which allows Parliament to pass laws contravening some rights and liberties for up to five years before legislators have to re-vote on the matter or craft new legislation.

OTTAWA - McGill University ethicist Margaret Somerville has called for a Royal Commission on “physician-assisted death” as well as for the federal government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to trump the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the matter.

ALBANY, N.Y. - As New York lawmakers began to consider a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide, the New York State Catholic Conference launched a new website "to offer Catholics moral clarity and guidance on the church's teachings regarding end-of-life decision-making."

In 35 years of journalism, I’ve had two significant encounters with jailhouse views of life and death. Memories of both came back sharply standing in Canada’s Supreme Court earlier this month when nine justices declared doctor-assisted killing legal.

In the 33-year life of the Charter of Rights and Freedom the federal government has never invoked the notwithstanding clause to override a court ruling. But Canada has never faced a decision quite like the Feb. 6 edict by the Supreme Court that will usher in assisted suicide and euthanasia.

OTTAWA - With one year to come up with a solution after the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s laws against physician-assisted suicide, there are any number of options being bandied about on all spectrums of the political divide.

OTTAWA - A Supreme Court of Canada ruling that legalizes assisted suicide “is simply wrong” and indicates a society that “has lost its moral compass,” said Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins.

OTTAWA - Disappointment, indignation and calls to invoke the notwithstanding clause followed a historic Supreme Court of Canada unanimous decision that struck down a ban on physician-assisted suicide and opened the door to assisted death for people who may not have a terminal illness.

Despite calls for quick and decisive action from opponents of the Supreme Court ruling that legalized physician-assisted suicide, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the government has no intention of acting hastily.