VATICAN CITY, March 31: The Vatican said on Thursday the death of Terri Schiavo had been caused by an unacceptable “violation of the sacred nature of life”. “The circumstances of the death of Mrs. Terri Schiavo have rightly shocked consciences. A life has been interrupted,” chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in the Vatican’s first official comment on the death of the brain-damaged Florida woman. “A death was arbitrarily brought forward ... There is no doubt there can be no exceptions to the principle of the sacred nature of life from the moment of conception until its natural end,” his statement said. “Besides being a principle of Christian ethics, this is also a principle of human civilisation,” the statement said. —Reuters