The number of reported Dutch cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide rose 13 per cent last year, the government has said, spurring talk of a possible "euthanasia hospital" to help people end their lives. The annual report of the regional commissions that oversee the Netherlands' euthanasia law said there were 2,636 cases in 2009, the vast majority of them euthanasia, or "mercy killing", as opposed to assisted suicide, or helping someone to die.

Most people want to die at home but a report out today shows huge variation in how likely that is to happen. There are steps that can ensure people get the end of life care they desire

Death has changed over the last century. In 1910, probably as in most of recorded human history, most people died in their own bed at home – whether home was a terrace house, peasant’s cottage or a palace.

Advances in medicine and healthcare through the 20th century dramatically changed the landscape: people were rightly accorded care to the very end of their lives and by the start of this century that meant 58% of all deaths in England took place in hospital.

SCOTTISH ministers last night faced calls for an inquiry as it emerged 90 people a year are dying from starvation in the country’s hospitals. Figures show 452 mostly elderly patients were killed by hunger over the last five years.

Campaigners claim that hundreds of patients, particularly the elderly, are languishing in hospital beds undernourished because they are not given help with feeding. There were 15 deaths in hospitals across Scotland last year, with a further 67 cases where malnutrition was a contributory factor. This compares with 14 deaths due to malnutrition and 81 contributory cases in 2005.

There is expected to be a major step toward so-called "Dying with Dignity" laws in Victoria today. The Greens MP Colleen Hartland plans to introduce a motion to the the Upper House of Parliament seeking a review of the 22 year old Medical Treatment Act.

Ms Hartland's motion focuses on end-of-life treatment and palliative care, and will ask whether the Act meets contemporary expectations and prevents suffering. The motion asks whether the Act should be referred to the Law Reform Commission.

The lobby group Dying with Dignity Victoria says more than 80 percent of people support the right of terminally ill people to die peacefully with medical assistance. The group says today's move is an outbreak of democracy and it is urging MPs to support the motion. Read article »...

In the first of its kind in recent memory, a woman in Bangalore, India has sought the high court's permission to die (voluntary euthanasia) claiming that she is not willing to live a life of heavy pain and misery.

Swiss prosecutors have dropped a criminal probe of the founder of the assisted suicide group Dignitas over urns containing human ashes that were thrown into Lake Zurich.