The coverline on this week’s Time magazine asks, “The End of Life. Who Decides?” And it seems the answer is Time magazine itself.

In
an embarrassing gaffe, the magazine’s “Milestones” section declared
Monaco’s 81-year-old ruler Prince Rainier III as DIED. While Prince
Rainier’s condition has been officially described as fragile, and there
is little hope he will recover, he hasn’t left us yet – and certainly
was very much alive when Time went to press last Saturday.

The latest report on Rainier’s health, from today’s Independent, states:

Prince Albert of Monaco was declared Regent of the
principality on the French Mediterranean coast last night as hopes
faded for the recovery of his father, Prince Rainier, who has been in a
critical condition in a heart and lung unit for the past ten days.

Although
there has been no further decline in the monarch’s condition since he
was placed on renal dialysis on Monday, the decision by the
principality’s Crown Council – equivalent to Privy Council – was seen
as a recognition that Prince Rainier, 81, is unlikely to recover.