The Italian government granted citizenship to Alfie Evans, a seriously ill British toddler, in a last-minute effort to prevent doctors in England from withdrawing life-support.

The father asked for "asylum" in Italy so his seriously ill son may receive care and "not be euthanized" in England.

Highlighting the plight of a seriously ill toddler in Great Britain and a severely brain-damaged man in France, Pope Francis called for greater respect for every patient's life and dignity.

Intentionally causing a patient's death is different from accepting that a patient is dying.

“There is no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy” to keep a person alive.

The American College of Physicians called for better promotion of palliative and hospice care, which opponents of physician-assisted suicide say are underutilized areas of medicine that could address concerns of patients facing difficult illnesses.