Death is certain, its hour is uncertain. For centuries, this ancient truism has been a strong motif in the figurative arts, a source of religious and political control, intellectual creativity, and social commitment. It has also been a foundational concept for nursing, long before it became a professional practice and science. Nursing has always had a strong voice in favor of people who are suffering, being present at their bedside and giving empathic care to the living and the dying, helping people to cope with the certitude of death and the uncertainty of its hour. An expression of this ''natural'' endeavor of nursing can be found in the preamble to the code of ethics of the International Council of Nursing, which states that ''. .. Nurses have four fundamental responsibilities: to promote health, to prevent illness, to restore health and to alleviate suffering,'' 1 and culminates in stating that ''The need for nursing is universal.'' This special issue of Nursing Ethics explores different perspectives and possible future directions of this commitment in the context of assisted dying. There is a need for a deeper analysis from the perspective of nursing ethics in the light of actual and potential legislative changes globally. This editorial includes short summaries of some of these changes from members of the Editorial Board of Nursing Ethics. They reflect the situation of countries where legal provisions and/or societal debates have emerged that necessarily involve the engagement of nurses. Knowing about the finitude of life is particular to human beings. In the context of breathtaking advances in medical science in prolonging biological life, the palliative care approach translated what it meant to alleviate suffering under the conditions of modern medicine. It became a reminder that death and dying are not to be seen as blind spots in a medical system that creates health, but as integral aspects of life that call for a response that is both compassionate and effective. As societies change, truisms become challenges. In industrialized nations, both the certitude of death and the incertitude of its hour seem to be put under scrutiny. One major reason is the success of medicine in avoiding preventable death and in refining constantly what ''preventable'' means. As to the certitude of death, the dispute about the definition of death by neurological criteria is restarted each time some refined understandings about how the brain works are presented. The legal battle of the parents of Jahi McMath in California, who succeeded in questioning the validity of her daughter's death certificate, may be seen as an isolated tragic situation, but it stands as a symbol for the challenges surrounding the declaration of death under the conditions of modern medicine. 2 As to the incertitude of the hour of death, planning one's own end of life turns up as a social imperative alongside the technological imperative of medicine. Many industrialized nations have introduced legislation on advance directives, confirming the validity of...