Vatican Official Calls Brittany Maynard's Cancer-Driven Suicide 'Reprehensible'
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - A top ethics official at the the Vatican calls the decision of a former San Francisco woman who to end her own life rather than play out her battle with terminal brain cancer "reprehensible."
CBS News reports that Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the ANSA news agency on Tuesday that "dignity is something other than putting an end to one's own life."
Carrasco de Paula said he was not judging the individual, but rather condemning the gesture made by taking her own life.
"Brittany Maynard's act is in itself reprehensible, but what happened in the consciousness we do not know."
Maynard, who had been suffering from a rare cancer and moved to Oregon because of the state's Death with Dignity Act took her own life Saturday, after posting a goodbye note on her Facebook page.
"Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love. Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me … but would have taken so much more," her Facebook post said. "The world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers. I even have a ring of support around my bed as I type … Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!"
The Cal graduate claims that cancer, not suicide, was responsible for her death. She penned a lengthy explanation of her mindset before taking the lethal combination of prescribed drugs and recorded a farewell message to friends.
The newlywed, who was living in San Francisco at the time, learned she had terminal brain cancer last January after months of suffering from debilitating headaches. In April, UC San Francisco told her she had six months to live.
Last month, Maynard released a YouTube video on her decision to move from her home state of California in order to access death with dignity laws in Oregon. The nonprofit Compassion & Choices helped chronicle her choice to die through a campaign to expand assisted suicide laws around the nation.