A highly publicised death of a woman who had campaigned for the "right to die with dignity" has reignited the debate about euthanasia and prompted Cardinal André Vingt-Trois to warn against creating a society in which its members doubted their right to live, writes Tom Heneghan.

Chantal Sébire, 52, apparently overdosed on barbiturates on 19 March after a court denied her request for a doctor's help to die because she suffered from an incurable sinus tumour that had grossly disfigured her face and left her blind and in constant pain. Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, head of the French Bishops' Conference and the Archbishop of Paris, went on French radio to oppose any move to allow euthanasia. He said the current law was "quite balanced [but] not fully applied". It rules out euthanasia in favour of wider use of palliative care but allows doctors to end treatment in certain circumstances. "Do we want to have the medical corps become the arbiter of prolonging or interrupting life?" the cardinal asked. "Let's avoid legislating on the basis of particular situations and let's set up the needed support systems."

Speaking on Tuesday to the spring bishops' conference assembly in Lourdes he returned to the topic. He said that advocates of euthanasia were trying to use the emotion of cases such as Ms Sébire's to promote assisted suicide and denigrate the palliative care option. "A passion for death has replaced compassion for life," he said.

French euthanasia advocates pointed to neighbouring Belgium, where the popular writer Hugo Claus, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died aged 78 on

19 March after requesting euthanasia. The actual cause of Claus' death was not made public. Some Belgian MPs want to extend the country's current liberal law - which leaves much to the discretion of the doctor - to cover terminally ill minors and old people suffering from dementia.

The Brussels Cardinal Godfried Danneels, head of the Belgian bishops' conference, criticised the law in his Easter Vigil homily. "By leaving life like that, one gives no answer to the problem of suffering and death," he said. "Sidestepping this is neither a heroic act nor fodder for front-page news." Erwin Mortier, a young Belgian writer, bitterly attacked Cardinal Danneels at a memorial service for Claus in an Antwerp theatre. "Celebrating one's own moral superiority over the corpse of a beloved departed is no heroic act," he said. The cardinal's spokesman, Hans Geybels, said that the homily "was not against Hugo Claus ... the cardinal was reacting against all the publicity for euthanasia".