Read an April 22, 2013, American Medical News article about a Seattle cancer center publishing its protocols for physician-assisted suicide, with the center noting that the information could be “particularly instructive” for others. American Medical News, which is published by the American Medical Association, describes the report as first-of-its-kind.

Read a June 4, 2013, Christian News Network story about Maine’s House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejecting a bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide.

Read a June 14, 2013, Wall Street Journal story about proposed changes to Belgium’s euthanasia law to make it more widely available, potentially even to gravely ill teenagers.

Read a June 23, 2013, story by BioEdge.org that says assisted-suicide prescriptions in Washington state were up 17 percent in 2012 compared with 2011.

Read a July 1, 2013, Reuters blog post about the debate in France over whether to legalize voluntary euthanasia.

Read a July 11, 2013, New York Times story about the possibility that Nelson Mandela’s family is facing thorny issues regarding his end-of-life care.

Paul D. Simmons is a clinical professor in the Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine and an adjunct professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Louisville. He has written extensively on religion (specifically Baptist) and health care. He is the author of Freedom of Conscience: a Baptist and Humanist Dialogue (2000).

Leanne McCall Tigert is a United Church of Christ minister and pastoral psychotherapist. She is co-editor of Coming Out Young and Faithful and lives in Concord, N.H.