France Opens the Door to a Right to Die, but Not Now

LONDON - France may become the latest European country to grant a right to die to the terminally ill, after a government-commissioned report on Tuesday opened the door to legalizing assisted suicide.

The government of President François Hollande said it would act on the recommendations of the report by bringing a bill before parliament in June next year on end-of-life care.

Assisted suicide is a topic on which public opinion appears to be ahead of legislators and mainstream medical opinion. A recent survey indicated that though national legislation differs widely, as many as two out of three Europea ns support a right to die.

The Swiss Medical Lawyers Association, which commissioned the poll from the Swiss pollster Isopublic, said, “In practically all European countries, many signs indicate that the prevailing legal system no longer reflects the will of large parts of the population on this issue.”

An international survey of 62,000 people, conducted by researchers at Bangor University in Wales, produced similar findings. It concluded that support for assisted suicide was around the same among people with terminal illnesses as for the general public.

Other evidence, however, suggests that the medical profession generally opposes moves in the direction of euthanasia. At the annual conference of the British Medical Association this year, members once again stated their opposition.

The French initiative follows an election campaign pledge by Mr. Hollande that he would make medical assistance available to help the terminally sick end their lives with dignity. He avoided using the word euthanasia.

Under existing legislation, French doctors are only allowed to administer painkilling drugs that might have the secondary effect of cutting short patients' lives.

Soon after coming to office this year, Mr. Hollande commissioned a report from a panel chaired by Didier Sicard, the former head of France's national ethics committee. That report, issued on Tuesday, after the panel consulted public meetings across the country, said that assisted suicide might be appropriate in cases of incurable illness.

The debate in Europe has been driven by high-profile cases in which terminally ill patients have been denied the right to die.

In Britain, Tony Nicklinson, a 58-year-old sufferer of s o-called locked-in syndrome died of natural causes in August shortly after losing the latest legal bid in a long-running campaign for help to end his life. Mr. Nicklinson was too incapacitated to administer a fatal dose unaided.

In France, Marie Humbert, a mother who ended the life of her quadriplegic son in 2003 with a lethal injection, said she was deeply disappointed that the Sicard report did not go further and recommend France pass a law immediately allowing euthanasia. She told Europe 1 radio that what was needed was a right for doctors to help those who wanted to die but were incapable of taking their own lives.

Assisted dying is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg, and in three U.S. states - Oregon, Washington and Montana.

Any change in French law would likely reflect practice in jurisdictions such as Oregon where the terminally-ill are allowed to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medication, expressly prescribed by a doctor.

Legislation varies across Europe, from the Netherlands, where patients may request active euthanasia carried out by a doctor, to Ireland, where assisted suicide is illegal and punishable by 14 years imprisonment.

Some terminally ill people from elsewhere in Europe have opted to end their lives in Switze rland, taking advantage of a law that has allowed assisted suicide since 1941.

Does the law elsewhere need changing? Tell us what you think. Should the terminally ill have an absolute right to choose to die, or should legislation remain in place to prevent possible abuses?

When Spell-Check Can\'t Help, Again

[PLEASE NOTE: After Deadline will take a holiday break next week and will return on Tuesday, Jan. 1.]

The pixels were barely dry on our previous roundup of sound-alike mix-ups when the file began to fill up again. Probably a coincidence. Still, let's be more careful with those homophones. The good news is that several of these lapses were fixed in later versions.

Here are the most recent examples - and now I vow to move on to a different complaint for a while.

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But Mr. Maduro, 50, will have difficulties of his own in having to reign in factions within Mr. Chávez's party.

This error often shows up in the mistaken phrase “free reign.” We meant “rein in,” an allusion to controlling a horse, not ruling a kingdom.

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Mr. Benkirane took office showing a flare for the dramatic.

The mirror imag e of a mistake from a few weeks ago. This time we meant “flair,” and fixed it for later editions.

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“He basically said newsprint is passé and poo-pooed acquiring any print publications,” said one employee who was loath to speak publicly about internal discussions for fear of offending the company's top management.

Yes, that's what we said in the early version, and it's not the first time we've made that mistake. Make it “pooh-poohed.” (At least we didn't slip up on “loath,” a frequent source of confusion.)

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For anyone who felt daring eating turkey giblets or neck over Thanksgiving, a guide to an offal restaurant in Tokyo, where pork cervix and vocal chords are the norm.

We meant “cords.”

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“I had driven since I was 16 so I thought I'm going to get through this like I've done every other,” he said. “It's a much bigger problem then most people th ink.”

Just a typo, perhaps, but a careless and common one. Make it “than.”

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Ashwini Chhabra, the taxi commission's deputy commissioner for policy and planning, said in his testimony that the industry had changed since those guidelines were devised. “We now have technology aides that we didn't have back when the exterior fare markings were originally conceived,” he said.

“Aids,” of course.

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Eventually the tides will flush much of the wastewater into the Atlantic Ocean where it will break down. There is concern though, that some contamination could go into the sentiment and be buried, particularly around Bay Park, where the waters are flushed out more slowly.

Not quite a homophone; we meant “sediment,” and fixed it eventually.

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Hocking my clinical wares like a Toyota dealer felt bizarre, so bizarre that while I resolved to start hustling and getti ng my name out there at networking events with other therapists, I certainly wasn't going to create a so-called brand.

Perhaps we were confused over “hock” in the sense of “pawn.” But here we meant “hawking.”

 
In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

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But one juror had a prearranged medical appointment at 4 p.m. and Judge Troy K. Webber, of State Supreme Court, decided there would be insufficient time to address the 54 charges against the driver, Ophadell Williams.

The formal title for this type of New York judge is “justice.”

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The news media saw a glimpse of DeGuglielmo's passion last week.

Make it “glimpsed” or “caught a glimpse.”

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And with the emergence of Steven A. Cohen, the founder of the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, as a subject of int erest, the government has identified a financier whose power and wealth surpasses even that of Mr. Milken in his heyday.

They may go hand in hand, but power and wealth are separate; make it “whose power and wealth surpass.”

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The minutiae of federal disaster relief is suddenly in the headlines.

Make it “The minutiae … are.”

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Also, with the purchase of an adult five-day or longer lift ticket, one child (age 7 to 12) will receive a complimentary lift ticket for the same dates and number of days as the adult lift ticket (there are blackout dates).

Avoid the promotional language of sales. Say “free.”

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The edits of a 911 audio recording - which removed an intervening question from the operator directly asking Mr. Zimmerman what race Mr. Martin was - aired three times on NBC's “Today” show …

This use of “edit s” as a noun is jargon; make it “editing.” (Also, “audio” may be unnecessary here; obviously that's the only kind of recording you would have of a phone call.)

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After 30 years of that, he retired and in 2008, during the Great Recession, he experienced a crisis of conscience and switched sides to work pro bono for people whose homes were being foreclosed on by banks.

We should avoid reflexive use of this term until the historical dust has settled.

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It's a cash cow for video game developers, a freemium business strategy that allows you to download apps for free but which hits you up for cash later in exchange for slogging through hours of gameplay and unlocking content fast.

The “for” is unnecessary.

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By paring and remachining a basic set of broadcast equipment, he reduced it to 368 pounds from 2,000 pounds and distributed the load with precise symmetry throughout the tiny Bell 47G2 chopper leased for the project to prevent listing.

First, our dictionary calls “chopper” informal; the short form of helicopter is “copter.” And second, be careful where you put those phrases; “to prevent listing” does not go with “leased” but with the far-off “distributed.”

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Growing up as a teenager in Germany, Jonathan Logan's opinion of the Middle East conflict was black and white.

A dangler; it was not his opinion that was “growing up.” In any case, the phrase seems redundant with “as a teenager.”

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After a 10-year follow-up, the researchers found that aspirin users had a 37 percent reduced risk of liver cancer and a 51 percent reduced risk of death from liver disease, compared to those who did not use aspirin or other NSAIDs.

As The Times's stylebook advises, when the intent is to contrast, say “compared with.”

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It's about three times larger than any of Pucci's existing stores, and a model for flagships of the future, Mr. Dundas said.

The stylebook warns against this construction, noting that the math actually works out (in this case) to “four times as large.”

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At stake is the $300 billion that Americans donate to nonprofits every year - and the $50 billion a year that tax deductions for charitable giving costs the government.

This surprisingly complicated sentence has two different agreement problems. The first verb should be “are,” since the subject is the compound “the $300 billion … and the $50 billion.” The second should be “cost,” because the subject of that relative clause is the plural “deductions.”

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MCC's production of “Reasons to be Pretty” debuted at the Lucille Lortel Theater in 2008 before moving to Broadway the following year.

Do not use “debut” as a verb, per the stylebook; make it “made its debut.” And uppercase forms of “be” (and any verbs) in titles.

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Even the design of iMessage makes people feel like they're in a special clique: an iMessage shows up on an Apple device as a blue bubble …

“As if,” not “like”

In Catholic Philippines, a Turning Point on Contraception

HONG KONG - There was both recrimination and celebration after the passage of a landmark bill in the Philippines on Monday, a measure that codifies sex education in schools and broadens access to condoms and birth control pills in poor and rural areas.

Versions of the bill had languished for more than a decade, as my colleague Floyd Whaley reports in The New York Times, because of staunch opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. About 80 percent of Filipinos are Catholic.

The reproductive health measure, locally known as the RH bill, passed in the House by a vote of 133 to 79, with 7 abstentions. (The bill had earlier passed the Senate, 13 to 8.)

Opponents of the bill were furious that 62 members of the House had not shown up for the vote.

“There is still a burning question that needs to be answered: Where were the other congressme n in time of such a crucial vote like the RH bill?” said the Pro-Life Philippines Foundation, which called the bill “ungodly” and published a list of the “Juadses” who did not vote.

“This is evil itself at work,” the foundation said on its Web site.

Catholic bishops have said they would work to defeat any supporters of the law in elections next year.

But Edcel Lagman, the congressman who sponsored the bill, played down those warnings, saying, “It's more of a threat than a reality. The experience in other Catholic countries is once a law is passed on reproductive health, even the church supports the law.”

One of the congressmen who missed the vote was Manny Pacquiao, the acclaimed welterweight boxer and almost certainly the most famous person in the Philippines. He was elected to the House in 2010 to represent Sarangani, located on the southern tip of the island of Mindanao.

Mr. P acquiao was knocked cold in a non-title fight in Las Vegas on Dec. 8, losing to Juan Manuel Márquez of Mexico. Three days later, on the floor of the House in suburban Manila, he spoke against the reproductive health bill, which was up for a preliminary vote. After receiving a rousing standing ovation from his fellow lawmakers, he said, “Manny Pacquiao is pro-life. Manny Pacquiao votes ‘no' to House Bill No. 4244.”

A condensed excerpt of Mr. Pacquiao's remarks:

In the dying seconds of the sixth round of my fight against Marquez, a single punch knocked me out. For more than two minutes, I was lying unconscious, motionless. My wife cried . . . my friends and fans cried when they saw me not moving at all. Some thought I was dead. They thought another life had been lost.

What happened in Vegas strengthened my already firm belief in the sanctity of life, on whether a person's right to live in this world should be put in the hands of his fellow man.

One of the most outspoken opponents of the bill was Senator Vicente Sotto III, widely known as Tito. He wanted to block teenagers from obtaining contraception, arguing that it would encourage young people to have sex.

Another congressman, Romero Quimbo, called Miro, was in the hospital on Monday, suffering from dengue fever, although he got permission to leave briefly so he could vote for the bill. Afterward, he tweeted a photo of himself in an ambulance heading back to the hospital.

Amnesty International generally applauded the passage of the bill, although the group noted that the current version was “imperfect” because it requires girls under 18 to have written parental consent before getting contraceptives.

“The Philippines still have a long way to fully respect, protect and fulfill women's right to reproductive health,” said Polly Truscott, Amnesty's deputy Asia-Pacific director.

The new bill does affect abortions, which remain illegal in the Philippines.

The final version of the law can still be tweaked by legislators before it is sent to President Benigno S. Aquino III for his signature.

Mr. Aquino was vocal in his support for the measure, and his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said Monday, “The people now have the government on their side as they raise their families in a manner that is just and empowered.”

IHT Quick Read: Dec. 18

NEWS Shinzo Abe, Japan's presumptive new prime minister, whose earlier term ended in failure in 2007, is in many ways a changed man, shifting his focus from nationalism to the economy. Hiroko Tabuchi reports from Tokyo.

If marriage is for better or worse, richer or poorer, then these are the worst of times for a poorer Spain. Couples are paying the emotional price, especially when they cannot afford the price of divorce. Dan Bilefsky reports from Sabadell, Spain.

The Pentagon quietly notified Congress this month that it would reimburse Pakistan nearly $700 million for the cost of stat ioning 140,000 troops on the border with Afghanistan, an effort to normalize support for the Pakistani military after nearly two years of crises and mutual retaliation. Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger report from Washington.

Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in, the top candidates in the South Korean presidential election, say they would take a softer approach toward North Korea than the departing president. Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul.

After a ferocious national debate that pitted family members against one another, and some faithful Catholics against their church, the Philippine Congress passed legislati on on Monday to help the country's poorest women gain access to birth control. Floyd Whaley reports from Manila.

Banco Santander said Monday it would absorb Banesto, its main domestic subsidiary and once one of Spain's leading banks, as part of a plan to cut 700 branches, or about 15 percent of its retail network. Raphael Minder reports from Madrid.

When the automaker Fiat said recently that it would lay off a third of the work force in Tychy, Poland, or about 1,500 people, it was a harsh reminder: Even with the healthiest big economy in Europe, Poland cannot escape the Continent's economic downturn. Jack Ewing reports from Warsaw.

FASHION Livia Firth, eco-fanatic, “facilitator” and wife of the actor Colin Firth, has a mission to motivate celebrities to environmental action. Suzy Menkes reports.

ARTS A compilation of the Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera's music was released just days after her death. It makes abundantly clear why she was so beloved as a singer, symbol and spitfire. Jon Pareles reviews the album.

SPORTS Barcelona could have the league title wrapped up before Christmas after it beat Atlético Madrid on the same day that Real Madrid tied Espanyol at home. Rob Hughes on soccer.

Home for the Holidays, or Not: Tell Us Your Stories

There is plenty of allure, challenge and excitement to living abroad, but those with a proclivity for homesickness can find themselves awash in it during the holiday season. Have you spent your holidays overseas, on assignment or by choice? Where did you go? How did you celebrate? Here is my story; tell us yours. We'll post our favorites during these last weeks of 2012.

The day I love most â€" Christmas! - is the day I'm most dreading this year. Three years into an assignment abroad, I'll be spending my third Christmas away from home. I'll work on Christmas Day; there won't be much to do. I'll have dinner with friends who are also far from their families.

In thrall to the chance to live overseas for the first time I had somehow missed the fine print: that I'd be working throughout the holidays each year. Or perhaps three years ago, Christmas at home didn't feel as urg ent as it does now.

On Dec. 25, technology willing, I'll Skype with my daughters. They're grown up enough that they no longer expect the wonder world under the tree, but like me, not grown up enough not to miss the cooking, the wrapping, the Christmas music. They'll have that this year with their father in New York. I'll call my mother, and my siblings. I'll miss my own father; he died in March.

My family came to visit that first Christmas in Paris. It snowed every day, as I recall, soft white flakes making this most beautiful city even more so. We saw “My Fair Lady” at the Théâtre du Châtelet, took a ride on the Ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde and had a bona fide b ûche de Noël.

Last year Christmas was on Sunday. My marriage had finished its unraveling by then; the girls and their dad stayed in New York. I fled France for England, where old friends welcomed me into their cozy house in the country and enormous family celebration - a lot like the celebrations of my own childhood. We went to the Anglican village church, to the children's service. Said the prayers, sang the carols. We paid a visit to my friend's mother's grave in the well-kept cemetery. We listened to the Queen's Christmas message; worried about Prince Philip, who was feeling poorly. We hung mistletoe cut from the nearby woods and set the table, with Christmas crackers (party favors that open with a snap), and everyone from the two nonagenarian grandmothers to the youngest children wore colorful foil crowns throughout the feast.

“We go all out for Christmas in England,” one of my friends' th ree daughters said, as if she had to explain the over-the-top-ness of the decorations and the parade of dishes, no one of which could be done without. Roast parsnips and carrots, Brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, red cabbage, bread sauce, cranberry jelly, red currant jelly, sausage stuffing, pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon, no puff pastry here), gravy and of course turkey and then for dessert - er, pudding - it was mince pie and Christmas pudding with a choice of brandy cream or brandy butter.

“We don't have your Thanksgiving,” she said as she mixed up the bread sauce. “Christmas is our only chance.”

The country goes so all out, in fact, that trains don't run. A cab arrived to whisk me to Heathrow, but, thankfully, not till after Christmas pudding was served. The warmth, the unabashed jollity, the familiarity of the traditions and not least the comfort of my own lan guage kept the ache for home manageable. I only wished I could have stayed for Boxing Day.

I know well that my circumstances don't qualify as hardship. It's Christmas in Paris, after all. Those on military duty far from home, especially those in danger: those are the people, and their families, for whom separation at the holidays must be roughest. This year has been rough for so many, close to home: the unimaginable horror of the shootings in the Connecticut elementary school, the devastation of Sandy. The promise of renewal that the Christmas story tells feels farther away, harder to locate, within and without.

Twice, when my girls were small, kittens magically appeared under the Christmas tree - always the biggest tree we could carry home. There was delight, and surprise, and a lot of cuddling. Even if I were at home, it wouldn't be that kind of Christmas. Christmas with older children is different; they like to loll around in family togetherness, but only to a point. Their friends are in town; they're restless to see them. Soon they'll be so restless that they may choose to spend Christmases away from home altogether. I did when I was their age. That's probably as it should be. Presents are still a delight, but they prefer to have their lists strictly observed. Surprises are less welcome than they used to be.

It's a rainy December in Paris, but I'm resolved not to mope. The clouds broke for a few hours this weekend and I carried home a fat little tree from the corner, strung the lights and hung some little ornaments. There's an ice-skating expedition in the offing, and some nice evening gatherings. Maybe I'll do some baking and invite my favorite neighbors over, although my oven is tiny and I don't have an American measuring cup. I'd have to approximate ingredients and temperatures. And really: baking, in Paris? The epitome of redundancy. Maybe I'll succeed in sending some Christmas cards instead.

I'll go to the American Cathedral on Christmas Eve; I haven't been there yet, and I'm told the organ is stupendous. I'll retrace my steps to hidden Sainte-Chapelle, and marvel again at the soaring verticality of its stained glass. Or I'll go to the American Church, where our yoga class meets on Saturdays. As the holidays approach we practice amid Christmas trees hung with humble, beautiful construction-paper ornaments. Stray flecks of glitter sparkle on our mats; the trees are fragrant - the woods in winter. We hear the choir rehearsing their carols.

I might check the airlines one more time, to see whether, miraculously, a ticket has appeared at a reasonable price that delivers me to New York next weekend and will get me ba ck to Paris in time for work on Christmas.

It's only a day, I keep telling myself. When I'm home again, I'll love it even more.