MONDAY
IN THE NEWS
Top stories from state, nation and world
Cfinton proposes $1.6
biHon in aid lop Russia
VANCOUVER, British Columbia
The Clinton administration on Sunday
announced a $1.6 billion aid package
for Russia, almost half in agriculture
credits that will give Russia quick ac
cess to food without adding to its mas
sive debt.
The plan, outlined on the final day of
President Clinton’s two-day summit
with Russian President Boris Yeltsin,
provides s7oomillion in grain and other
food credits as well as $690 million in
direct grants and $230 million in other
aid.
Clinton’s package designed to
help maintain political and economic
reforms in Russia would establish a
“Democracy Corps” of Americans to
engage in “people-to-people” contacts
with Russians.
The administration said the package
used funds that already had been appro
priated by Congress but had been bottled
up. No further congressional action is
needed.
Demonstrators move
toward Indian border
MUZAFF AR AB AD, Pakistan—Hun
dreds of anti-Indian demonstrators de
fied army warnings and pressed toward
the disputed Kashmiri border Sunday,
clambering over rubble in a mountain
pass that was dynamited in an attempt to
stop them.
The government, fearing another
confrontation with India, vowed to halt
the demonstrators and sent troops to
block their way. But the organizer of the
march said, “We will continue until
death stops us.”
Two wars have been fought over the
predominantly Muslim Kashmir region
since it was divided between Pakistan
and India in 1947. The Indian portion
makes up part of the state of Jammu-
Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim
majority state.
But Pakistani authorities oppose an
incursion by protesters into Jammu-
Kashmir.
Cambodian guerrillas
kl U.N. peacekeepers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas shared a meal with
Bulgari an peacekeepersjust before rebel
gunmen opened fire, killing three of the
foreigners, a U.N. mission spokesman
said Sunday.
The comments by the spokesman,
Eric Fait, are the most complete ac
count so far of the late Friday attack in
the western province of Kompong Speu.
Fait said the Bulgarians welcomed
three of the guerrillas when they dropped
by the U.N. unit and invited them to eat
with the platoon of 20 peacekeepers.
Near the end of the meal, one guer
rilla left the dining tent, and another
soon followed. The second man returned
with 10 armed guerrillas and began to
act threateningly, Fait said.
The Bulgarians’ leader ordered his
soldiers to get their weapons outside the
tent. But just after they left, the guerril
las fired on the six Bulgarians still in
side, Fait said.
Three were killed, and three others
were seriously wounded.
—The Associated Press
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Hemlock Society director calls for ‘right to die’ laws
By Alia Smith
Staff Writer
John Pridonoff, executive director of
Hemlock Society USA, stressed the need
for laws to permit medically-assisted
suicide before an audience of about 50
in a forum Sunday at the Chapel Hill
Senior Center.
“We’re taught to deny death from the
time we are bom,” he said. “If we deny
the reality and finality of death, then we
can never come to terms with it. No
matter how much we deny it, it doesn’t
go away.”
The Hemlock Society is a nonprofit,
Preponderance of legal jargon hereby placed under fire
By Brad Williams
Staff Writer
A movement to end the use of con
fusing legal jargon has gained momen
tum in Michigan, but N.C. lawyers say
there has been no clamor for more user
friendly language in state legal docu
ments.
“Legalese,” which appears in court
room documents and legislation, con
notes what some consider superfluous
wording, such as “preponderance of,”
“hereby” and “now comes.”
“Legalese is the wordiness on the
part of judges and lawyers,” said Tony
Worden, an intern at the Communica
tions Department of the State Bar of
Michigan. “Lawyers feel they sound
more intelligent if they use this type of
wording.”
Although the drive to rid legal writ
ing of legalese has become a full-fledged
movement in Michigan, it has not yet
become an issue among N.C. lawyers.
“Those who teach legal writing are
looking for precision in the use of lan
guage in general,” said Thomas M.
Steele, a Wake Forest University pro
fessor of law. “However, there is no
organized plain-language movement in
North Carolina, as far as I know.”
Allan Head, executive director of the
N.C. Bar Association, said he thought
legalese was necessary to clarify a topic
and that misinterpretation was due to a
lack of understanding of the terms.
“All professions, whether academia,
medical or the law community, have
terms which do not mean a thing to
those not schooled in those professions,”
Head said.
Week
from page 3
keynote address by Huerta at 8 p.m.
Huerta, a known proponent of workers’
rights, will speak about a variety ,of
social movements.
Huerta also will speak Wednesday
afternoon about working class struggles.
School of Social Work students will
hold a bake sale Wednesday to raise
money for UNC housekeepers.
Wednesday’s activities also will in
clude an open discussion of the
University’s response to demands for
diversity in the curriculum. The Caro
lina Indian Circle sponsored forum will
focus on a lack of black and Native-
American faculty at UNC, a proposed
cultural diversity requirement and stu
dent demands for a Hindi language class.
The week ends Thursday with a show
ing of the movie “Stand and Deliver.”
grassroots organization that advocates
the right for terminally ill people to
“reject medical treatments that only pro
long dying,” Pridonoff said.
“The Hemlock Society is committed
to changing the face of how living,
dying and death is handled in the com
munity,” Pridonoff said. “We want the
medical profession to deal with us on
our terms.”
Pridonoff said many terminally ill
patients and society in general refused
to deal with the issue of death. “We
have to accept that if a loved one has
Lou Gehrig’s disease, if a loved one has
cancer, if a loved one has AIDS, if a
He attributed the “plain English”
movement to changes in the law profes
sion and society. “Limiting legalese is a
response to a trend in society to be
consumer friendly,” he said.
Richard Singer, a Raleigh lawyer,
said possible changes in the wording of
legal documents did not concern him
and added that he thought lawyers could
conform to any system used to write
them.
“The legalese debate doesn’t matter
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loved one is aging, that loved one is
going to die,” Pridonoff said.
He added that the cosmetics and au
tomobile industries used society’s fear
of aging to sell their products, touting
them as a cure for the effects of aging.
“Where would these industries be if we
didn’t deny the aging process?” he asked.
He then turned to what he called the
medical profession’s aversion to medi
cally-assisted suicide. “Most physicians
are dedicated professionals who want
to do what’s right, but they need per
mission to do it,” he said. “We’ve got a
very important mission to aid physi
cians to help terminally ill patients. And
to me one way or the other,” he said. “I
can adapt.”
George Hathaway, chairman of the
Plain English Committee of the State
Bar of Michigan, said legalese prevented
precision. “Legal writing should be clear
writing,” he said. “Eliminating legalese
helps to clarify legal writing.”
Hathaway said he promoted his plain
English agenda through a monthly ar
ticle in the Michigan Bar Journal. “The
article promotes plain English by iden
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we have to get society to talk about it”
He added that patients should make
sure their doctors promised to carry out
their wishes because some doctors were
afraid of being sued or might attempt to
impose their theological beliefs on pa
tients. Pridonoff said that if a doctor
refused to carry out the patient’s wishes
or to discuss the subject, the patient
should switch doctors.
Pridonoff then listed a series of ques
tions each patient should ask himself
before being committed to a hospital or
convalescent home: “Do you have a
durable power of attorney for health
care?” “Do you have a living will?” “Do
tifying legal writing that is already in
plain language,” he said.
The Plain English Committee also
has encouraged lawyers to use plain
English by giving a clarity award to
those who do not use legalese, Worden
said.
Last year one award was given, but
this year an award will be presented
each month, he said. “The awarding of
the clarity award is seen as an improve
ment in the decreasing use of legalese.”
you have pre-made arrangements with
the memorial home of your choice?’
and “Do you have someone you trust
who can speak for you if you are unable
to speak for yourself?”
Pridonoff said all patients should be
able to answer yes to each question
before undergoing treatment.
. “The Hemlock Society wants to help
you deal with fear,” Pridonoff con
cluded. “We want you to be able to have
respect, dignity, and integrity. In living,
dying and death we want to be able to
maintain those elements. We want leg
islation passed so we can have those
things in final end-of-life decisions.”
Hathaway said he did not advocate
state laws to promote use of plain En
glish and that change should be volun
tary. Currently, Michigan prohibits use
of legalese in insurance contracts.
He said “true legal terms of art,” such
as “plaintiff,” “defendant” and “negli
gence” should not be banished.
“We want to keep the true legal terms
of art which give the legal language
precision,” he said. “Legalese is the
non-terms of art.”
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