A Catholic bishop in Belgium has declared his support for the euthanasia of elderly people.
Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp made a distinction between killing people who were old and suffering from an incurable illness and those who were young.
He also suggested that the euthanasia of the elderly was a form of killing as morally justifiable as killing an enemy on the battlefield in a just war.
In an interview with La Libre, a Belgian newspaper, Bishop Bonny said he rejected the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church that euthanasia was an intrinsic moral evil.
