Society's Child
Using the term "assisted death" rather than euthanasia, the council invoked a "duty to humanity" to allow a patient "suffering from an ailment for which the treatment has become ineffective" to die.
A medical team, not a sole doctor, would take the decision.
The council's conclusions came after President François Hollande asked it to examine the precise circumstances under which such steps could be authorised, with a view to tabling draft legislation by June.
Changes were necessary, he said, as, "the existing legislation does not meet the legitimate concerns expressed by people who are gravely and incurably ill".
A 2005 law already authorises doctors to administer painkilling drugs at levels they know will, as a secondary effect, shorten a patient's life.
"However, the law can offer no solution to certain cases of prolonged agony or to psychological and/or physical pain that, despite the means employed, remain uncontrollable," said the council.
A rundown on a scandal that continues to spread:
WHERE DID EUROPE'S HORSEMEAT SCANDAL BEGIN?
In mid-January, Ireland's food safety watchdog announced that it had discovered traces of horse DNA in burger products sold by major British and Irish supermarkets.
The mislabeled products came from Irish processor Silvercrest Foods, which withdrew 10 million burgers from store shelves.
Irish officials first blamed an imported powdered beef-protein additive used to pad out cheap burgers, then frozen blocks of slaughterhouse leftovers imported from Poland - an indication of the complexity of the food-supply chain that was about to be revealed to an alarmed European public.
The shocking February 8 incident aboard Delta Airlines Flight 721 resulted in Joe Rickey Hundley, 60, being charged with simple assault, according to a U.S. District Court affidavit. Hundley, seen at right, is president of an aircraft parts manufacturer headquartered in Hayden, Idaho.
In an interview, Hundley denied striking the toddler or using a racial slur, though he did acknowledge that he "asked the mother to quiet the child." Hundley, who said he was traveling to Atlanta to visit a hospitalized relative, described himself as "distraught" on the flight, during which he said he consumed a single alcoholic drink.

Priests listened to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Thursday. “I will always be close to all of you,” Benedict told them.
Benedict, who announced his resignation on Monday in a move that stunned the Roman Catholic world, also indicated that he would not hold a public role once his resignation became official on Feb. 28. Benedict is the first pope to step down in nearly 600 years.
"Though I am now retiring to a life of prayer, I will always be close to all of you, and I am sure all of you will be close to me, even though I remain hidden to the world," Benedict, 85, and increasingly frail, told the assembly of hundreds of priests, who had greeted him with a long standing ovation and some tears.
Police say the 41-year-old officer and 34-year-old wife are charged with several counts of aggravated assault, assault with weapon, aggravated sexual assault, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessaries of life.
In order to protect the identity of the victims, names of the couple have not been released, police say. Nor will they say how many children were involved.
"There is more than one but we're not (saying) how many," said Ottawa police acting Staff Sgt. François D'Aoust.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person isn't authorized to speak publicly, said the investigation was launched after an 11-year-old child was discovered wandering in a residential neighbourhood.
Bulloch County public safety director Ted Wynn the farmer sank past his waist into the soybeans Wednesday afternoon and couldn't pull himself free. He says rescue workers have a harness around the trapped man so he won't sink any farther and are slowly draining the beans from the bottom of the silo.
A new study published in the American Journal Demography and titled "Skewed Sex Ratios in India: Physician Heal Thyself" seems to suggest so. The survey was conducted by collecting data from 946 nuclear families with 1,624 children. Either one or both parents were doctors and students at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagpur between 1980 and 1985.
The survey revealed the following:
- Child sex ratio amongst these families was 907 girls per 1,000 boys
- This is below the national average of 914
- Much lower than the regional (Vidarbha) average of 954
- If the family had only one child, this figure dropped even further to 900
- If the family had two children and the first one was girl, the ratio dropped to a shameful 519 - chances of the second child being female dropped by 38%
Rhonda Westenberger said she and her sister, Evelyn, were asleep, unaware of the danger, until their pit bull, named Baby, sprang to action.
The women said the dog would not stop barking and pouncing on them until the women woke up and when they did, they had just seconds to escape.
"There were flames shooting down the hallway," said Westenberger. "If Baby hadn't woken Evelyn up, I don't think either one of us would have come out of it."
The women escaped, but their other five dogs were scared and stuck inside, so once again, Baby came to the rescue.
"There was one hiding underneath the bed," said family member Charles Land. "Baby actually went in there grabbed it by the neck and drug it outside."
The restaurant is called Hachikyo and is a three-minute walk from Susukino Station in Sapporo, Japan, reported RocketNews.
They are famous for their ikura -- salty salmon roe -- and the overflowing bowls that they serve. Order a 'tsukko meshi', a bowl of rice piled high with as much salmon roe as you want -- only if you agree to leave not even one grain of rice in your bowl.
People hearing this story might think the homeless man's luck would similar to winning the lottery - you live under a bridge, then, the next thing you know, you end up with platinum and diamonds. For some, it could be a life changer.
Billy Ray Harris got that change and then some last Friday.
"The ring was so big that I knew if it was real, it was expensive," Harris said.
He didn't notice it in his orange cup until almost an hour after its original owner unzipped her wallet and dumped her change into it.
"My rings were bothering me, so I put them in my coin purse," Sarah Darling explained.
Darling said she didn't realize what she'd done until the next day.
"I was so incredibly upset because, more than just the value of the ring, it had sentimental value," she said.