[AMNews] Doctors are right to advise an end to feeding for pediatric patients in a persistent vegetative state and some other circumstances, the association says.
For nearly two decades, the medical and legal consensus has been that it is permissable to withdraw life-sustaining artificial hydration and nutrition from adult patients in a persistent vegetative state. But [...]

[NYT] PETER SINGER – You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?
The costs of the current [...]

[NYT] LONDON — The controversy over the ethical and legal issues surrounding assisted suicide for the terminally ill was thrown into stark relief on Tuesday with the announcement that one of Britain’s most distinguished orchestra conductors, Sir Edward Downes, had flown to Switzerland last week with his wife and joined her in drinking a lethal cocktail of [...]

[Billings Gazette] JUNE 2, 2009 HELENA – The assisted-suicide case before the Montana Supreme Court is drawing a barrage of briefs from legislators, physicians and groups.
The state of Montana has asked the court to reverse a lower-court ruling that Montanans have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.
Before a Tuesday deadline, at least 14 motions to participate [...]

[Guardian] Senior doctors will tomorow express concern over the number of Britons suffering from non fatal illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and kidney disease who have used the Swiss suicide service, Dignitas.
Their fears were raised after the Guardian obtained a list drawn up by Dignitas which reveals the medical conditions which have driven 114 Britons [...]

[Monterey Herald] At 82, retired engineer Leonard Thompson is out to show he still has a few good years left. Years? What’s this bunk about mere years, sonny? More like decades. Why the heck not?
Thompson, after all, exercises body and mind daily, even developing his own workout program for seniors that emphasizes stretching, deep breathing, [...]

[ABC] A terminally ill British teenager has won the right to die after she was taken to court by a hospital that wanted to force her to have a heart transplant.
Thirteen-year-old Hannah Jones has been in and out of hospital for most of the past 10 years, but now she has refused any more operations [...]

The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) is calling for provinces and territories to legally recognize advance care directives for minors who are very sick or dying.  In a position paper published last week the CPS states that: 
Medical and technological advances have resulted in higher survival rates in… children with complex health conditions, many of whom would not [...]

[The Independent] It might be termed the hallucinogenic way of death. Psychoactive drugs such as “magic mushrooms” could be used to enhance the experience of dying, according to an expert in medical ethics.
Robin Mackenzie, director of medical law and ethics at the University of Kent, is to call today for people to be given more [...]

Three years after the fight over Terri Schiavo pulled the nation into the end-of-life debate, the case of a comatose Fresno County woman is reopening old wounds — and could prove even more inflammatory.
The family of Janet Rivera, 46, wants to keep her alive in a Fresno hospital. The county, acting as her legal guardian, [...]