The announcement appeared to be part of a pattern in Syria, where Mr. Assad has issued decrees that address protesters' demands for greater freedom, while his security forces continued to kill and detain those who demonstrate.
He took one look and decreed that surgery was necessary.
But while people continue to die because there's not enough livers and kidneys to go round, that effectively decrees that donors' sense of altruism is a trump-card.
Some corporations no longer allow employees to fly business class on flights less than nine hours, while others decree that employees take connecting flights instead of nonstops, which are usually more expensive.
The parliament was active in July, while the president was on vacation, and passed a raft of decrees that revised economic policy in order "to end the division of society".
In January, schools minister Nick Gibb decreed that while state schools may be entitled still to do IGCSE, the results would not be reported in the performance tables.
Two years ago the owners, who don't speak Navajo, decreed that, "while the owner is paying you as an employee, you are required to use English at all times" -- except to non-English-speaking customers.
Toward the end of last year, Ms. Bakoyanni decreed that while the city would sterilize strays, it would not kill any, not even the sick ones, which would be cared for in shelters and clinics.
While no one would decree that all cinema should mimic the work of Max Ophüls, whose images proceed in a stately waltz, we should surely be able to slump in the front row and enjoy the show, whereas anyone who gets up close and personal with "Cloverfield" will feel like a peppercorn in a grinder.
While the United States has never decreed that everyone has a "right" to a telephone, we have come close to this with the notion of "universal service" — the idea that telephone service (and electricity, and now broadband Internet) must be available even in the most remote regions of the country.
He says: While the US has never decreed that everyone has a "right" to a telephone, we have come close to this with the notion of "universal service" — the idea that telephone service (and electricity, and now broadband internet) must be available even in the most remote regions of the country.
