Vatican neurosurgeon says 'improper' to speculate on pope(2)

(see related)(ANSA) - Rome, October 21 - Neurosurgeon Giulio Maira said Wednesday it would be "improper" for him to speculate on whether or not Pope Francis is ill. "Being a Vatican doctor, speculating on the pope's alleged illness would have been extremely improper of me," he told ANSA after Quotidiano Nazionale (QN) paper ran an interview on brain tumours next to an article alleging the pope has a benign brain tumour. "Placing my interview next to the article on the pope was done without my knowledge and is entirely misleading," said Maira, a chief neurosurgeon at Vatican-linked Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
    "I was interviewed without being informed in the slightest about the context of the news story," said Maira, who is attending a series of scientific conferences in the the United States.
    "I gave purely scientific information," he said.