An engineer who died at a euthanasia clinic following an alleged acid attack by his former partner told emergency department staff "kill me now" after seeing his injuries in a mirror, a court heard.

Gaynor French wants to die wearing her Christmas socks and trainers, with Depeche Mode playing on the sound system and her husband and children by her side.

Though the last prosecution in Ireland for a suicide attempt was in 1967, the jury is still out on the topic of assisted dying.

It was as predictable as it was unavoidable: Even though a date for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment has not yet been announced opposing camps — that phrase hardly does justice to how polarised they are — are in full campaign mode. 

Five stray or unwanted dogs were put down in pounds every day last year, official figures have revealed.

Anything that concerns the taking of life has a societal dimension and everyone is entitled to express a view, writes Margaret Hickey

Germany parliament has passed a bill allowing assisted suicide for “altruistic motives” but banning the practice in cases where it is being conducted on a “business” basis.

Doctors given a green light by a European court to end the life support for a comatose French man sought help from prosecutors amid an escalating conflict between the man’s family members.

Children suffering serious pain with little prospect of recovery should be allowed to request euthanasia, whatever their age, the Dutch association for child medicine has said.

The European Court of Human Rights has allowed France to take a man in a coma off life support, in a case that has torn a family apart and could influence the extent to which euthanasia is endorsed by law across the continent.

The Danish zoo which hit headlines last month for euthanising one of its giraffes has put down a further four animals - the lions it fed the giraffe to.

There has perhaps never been a book that arrived at a point of such poignancy as the autobiography of the courageous right-to-die campaigner Marie Fleming.

More than a decade after legalising euthanasia for adults, Belgium is set to extend mercy-killing to terminally-ill children after lengthy public debate over the ethical issues at stake.