The man arrived at the hospital unconscious, without identification, with a high blood alcohol level. He was 70, had a history of lung disease, heart problems and diabetes, and three words tattooed in big, black letters across his chest: “Do not resuscitate”. Doctors at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida weren’t sure how to proceed…

MORE families are taking steps to confirm their children’s parentage but it doesn’t have to be a harrowing experience…

More than half of transgender and gender diverse Australians have been victims of sexual violence or coercion – almost four times the rate of the general population…

The death of a loved one can be hard enough to deal with without the extra worry about the cost of carrying out their wishes. Key decisions — including the executor of the will, whether to die at home or whether you are buried among the trees or cremated — all involve a financial burden and much easier made when family members are not bereaved…

Palliative care professionals have presented a united front against proposed voluntary assisted dying legislation on the eve of debate in the NSW Parliament, declaring the bill “cannot be made safe”…

With the Victorian Parliament on the cusp of debating the country’s first state government-sponsored assisted dying bill (euthanasia), advocates for reform hope the laws will result in fewer people choosing to die in such harrowing circumstances…

Cancer Council Victoria has launched a Supreme Court bid to get its hands on a dead woman’s medical records, to establish whether it has a claim to $12 million left to the organisation in her previous will…

A British court has found that a mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy was not a criminal offence, and so has denied a damages claim made on behalf of her disabled daughter. However, this poses obvious ethical dilemmas, particularly appertaining to the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy on the child…

Solicitors who specialise in helping female victims of Domestic Violence have been providing free, clandestine legal support to suspected victims of family violence, in hospital settings, while they have been receiving treatment for suspicious injuries. ..

The spate of cases raises questions about the legal rights a child born to an overseas surrogate has in Australia, and what rights Australians who engage in surrogacy agreements have in Thailand and other countries..