Happy Xmas to everyone reading this post.

Defense of Life states:

When the original unit is damaged or killed, they drop the Life condition token. Can some other unit pick it up and deposit it at the board edge?

We played RAW, yes, but this seemed against the spirit of the condition, based on its name.

Assassination states:

How do you count the damage dealt if the unit is Healed? Say the unit takes 8 damage and then heals 4. Does it take one more point of damage to complete this, or 5 more damage?

{EDIT: RAW not WAR}

I'd play defense of life like it reads. Meaning that damage drops the token, and anyone can pick it up at that point.

Assassination says you only have to deal 9 damage, not that they have to have 9 damage. SO, in your example, only one more damage would complete the objective.

That's how I run them, at least.

Happy Christmas, Usagi. That's exactly how we played it.

For Assassination, the ruling did not matter, as the unit was dealt 9 damage, had 9 damage and was killed in all in one go! Ha ha ha. But we intended to play it exactly as written. The odd thing is, that if Assassination was trying to kill the unit, rather than damage it, then Healing would hinder progress towards the objective.