The relationship between ethics and law in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae

Abstract

In this article the author intends to underline the importance of the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae in awakening one’s conscience to one of the most serious ethical and juridical changes in the history of man. The aim is to examine three questions: 1) to return to the basis on which the juridical and moral postulate of the inalienability of the right to life of the innocent man and above all of the conceived child, was and is founded; 2) to establish the causes that led to a permissive legislation on abortion and to other attacks against the dignity of man and of human life (euthanasia, manipulation of genes and embryos); 3) to evaluate which philosophical and biological reasons it is necessary to take into account in order to protect the right to life.

As far as the right to life is concerned, the author’s intention is to underline that it is important that the principle of non discrimination, based on that of equality, should be applied to the “human being” and not only to the “juridically acknowledged person”.

The article also illustrates the great tradition of the right to life, the worrying decadence of the juridical civilization, the need for a closer relationship between Law and Ethics and Biology and Ethics (as fields of research and of intellectual commitment to protect life).