The head of the Vatican think-tank on life issues, has condemned the death by assisted suicide of American Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill 29-year-old who ended her life over the weekend.
Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told Italian news agency Ansa it was an undignified "absurdity".
He said suicide is a bad thing because it is saying no to life, and to everything it means with respect to our mission in the world and towards those around us.
Brittany Maynard, who was diagnosed in January with a brain tumor, had announced plans to take medication to die when her pain became unbearable.
She had become the face of the right-to-die movement ahead of her death at the weekend.
