Peter Shumlin, the Democratic Governor of the small progressive-leaning state, signed into law a bill that lawmakers adopted last week. Vermont follows the states of Oregon and Washington in legalizing the practice. (AFP)

A coolie in Kanyakumari district has sought permission for euthanasia of his infant son, who has been suffering from an unknown disorder since his birth. (Times of India)

The Strasbourg, France-based court said Switzerland must specify whether its laws are meant to include people not suffering from terminal illnesses and, if so, spell out the conditions under which they can end their lives. (Washington Post)

Vermont is poised to become the third U.S. state to allow doctor-assisted suicide, after its legislature passed a bill allowing physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. (Reuters)

In the latest attempt to overturn the prohibition on doctors helping to end the lives of their patients, the court of appeal is considering three requests for legal guidelines to be relaxed. (The Guardian)

Eminent Belgian scientist Christian de Duve, aged 95, a winner of the Nobel prize for medicine, died on Saturday after committing euthanasia, which is legal in Belgium, his family said. (Times of India)

The veteran 73-year-old arts critic, novelist and broadcaster was deeply affected by watching Alzheimer’s take its toll on his 95-year-old mother for five years until her death last year, and said assisted suicide was an issue for people his age. “It’s happening to my generation – they see what happens when people get close to death, and we’re saying, ‘We don’t want that.’” (The Guardian)

Fears that legalising euthanasia for very sick newborns would prompt the start of a “slippery slope” and lead to abuse of the option have proved groundless, says the architect of a dedicated protocol used by doctors in The Netherlands, in a special issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics. (Science Daily)

My problem with euthanasia is not that it is a immoral way to die, but that it has its roots in a fearful way to live. (The Guardian)

A major survey of religious opinion shows that large majorities of believers are in favour of legalising assisted dying. The poll, carried out by YouGov for the Westminster Faith Debates and involving nearly 4,500 people, reveals that only among Muslims and Baptists are there majorities against a change in the law that prohibits assisted suicide. Majorities of Anglicans, Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Methodists and Pentecostalists are in favour of changing the law. (The Guardian)

A terminally ill Irish woman has lost the latest legal challenge in her fight to win the right to take her own life, with the assistance of her partner. (BBC)

The report by Australia21 - a non-profit body dedicated to analysing complex issues - found even though voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide were unlawful, they occurred ”not infrequently” in Australia with no oversight and rarely any prosecutions. (The Herald Sun)

Senior Australian of the year Ian Maddocks has expressed concern that if euthanasia were legalised, death could be seen as a ”quick fix” to suffering that could be relieved with palliative care. (Sydney Morning Herald)

In theory, legal assisted suicide sounds compassionate and safe, promising autonomy. How could one person’s decision about their own body possibly harm someone else? In reality, assisted suicide doesn’t live up to its billing. (CBC News)

In Canada, if you are a competent adult, then you have the legal as well as the moral right to insist that life-support be withheld or withdrawn, even if this will result in your immediate death. If, however, you are suffering irremediably but are not dependent on technology to keep you alive then you may be stuck. (CBC News)

For the first time, a health care organization details how its physicians help terminally ill patients navigate the process of securing lethal prescriptions. (American Medical News)

Paul Lamb is the latest person to seek a change in the law so that he can be allowed to die with the help of a doctor. (BBC)

Dr. Eric Kress has been a family physician for 26 years, but he will never forget the terminally ill patient who called him a “coward” for hesitating to prescribe him lethal medication that would ease his pain and help him die. (ABC News)

Baby boomers, like Burzichelli, a former education manager at Rutgers University, are at the forefront of a new movement. They brought on the sexual revolution, demanded natural childbirth, fought for legalized abortion and turned the mid- life crisis into a force for self-improvement. Now they’re engaged in transforming how Americans experience death. (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Physician-assisted suicide laws can raise controversy and concern with their passage, but a new study from Washington state suggests many of those fears may be unfounded. (U.S. News and World Report)

In Belgium, between 1998 and 2007, euthanasia was legalized and palliative care was intensified, which led to an increase in end-of-life decisions (ELDs) and fewer life-ending acts without the patient’s explicit request, according to research published online March 11 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. (Medical Xpress)