Somewhere tucked between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s press conferences earlier this month about the tragedy of the Ukrainian Airlines crash was a bombshell of another kind: changes coming to federal legislation that pave the way for more Canadians to end their lives prematurely.

OTTAWA -- As Canadians are being urged to express their views before the government revises the law governing assisted suicide, about 200,000 people have made their feelings known via a federal government online survey, according to the Department of Justice.

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.

Canada stands on the brink of legally euthanizing disabled people for no other reason than self-reported suffering because life is difficult, doctors and disability experts are warning.

VATICAN CITY -- Religious leaders from the Catholic and Orthodox Churches joined with representatives from the Muslim and Jewish faiths to sign a joint declaration stating clear opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

EDMONTON -- Many Catholic doctors in Alberta are worried that they will soon be forced to provide referrals for assisted suicide, says the head of the provincial St. Luke’s Physicians’ Guild.

The death of Alan Nichols took several months to make it into the mainstream news. And as of this writing, it is still a blank spot. His case should have been big news because of what it indicates for the future of this country and the safety of our most vulnerable.

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.

OTTAWA -- A Quebec court decision that strikes down key safeguards in Canada’s euthanasia law points to an urgent need to provide opportunities and care for vulnerable and disabled people, said euthanasia opponents who called the ruling “terrible news.”

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (CNA) - A Netherlands court acquitted a doctor involved in a controversial euthanasia case who had been accused of breaching the consent requirements for ending a woman’s life.

VATICAN CITY -- Medical advancements do not help if they treat people as objects or when they are applied only to those people who are not considered a burden and "deserve" to be helped, Pope Francis said.

The assisted suicide death of a Powell River, B.C., man who struggled for years to find adequate care is a call to Catholics to speak out and “challenge the legitimacy” of bureaucracies that put cost and efficiency ahead of the value of human life, says the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s pro-life chaplain.