Premise

For this international congress which brings together a specialised public - that of gynecologists and obstetricians who have come from many countries to promote and defend their own professional identity and ethics at the service of unborn life - it will certainly be of some interest to know the service that the Pontifical Academy for Life can render to their profession.

I would like, therefore, to present a brief summary of the goals of the Academy as set out in its statutes, its method of work, and its scientific and promotional activities which have already been engaged in or which are planned for the near future.

The Pontifical Academy for Life was established by His Holiness John Paul II by the Motu Proprio 'Vitae Mysterium' of 11 February 1994.

The year 1994 is significant because that was the year which the United Nations Organisation dedicated to the family, and the year when the World Conference on Population of Cairo took place. At this conference the most influential international bodies, as well as numerous private institutions of great economic power, approved a 'programme of action' which bore the title of so-called 'reproductive health'. In reality, this amounted to a planned strategy for the drastic reduction of births through the use of means which were defined as 'effective': contraception, contragestion, sterilisation, and so-called 'safe abortion'.

All of us remember the cultural and ethical contrast between these positions and the positions courageously affirmed and upheld by John Paul II and defended 'to the teeth' by the delegation of the Holy See to the Cairo conference.

The day - 11 February - is also significant because it is the day when Our Lady of Lourdes is remembered and the World Day of the Sick is celebrated.

The foundation of the Pontifical Academy for Life was in part the result of the idea and suggestion of a Catholic scientist, the renowned and famous geneticist, Prof. Jérome Lejuene, who is known for having discovered that trisomy 21 is responsible for Down's syndrome. Prof. Lejeune was a member of the older and more prestigious Pontifical Academy of Sciences and felt that the subject of human life should be entrusted to a special and multidisciplinary analysis which required the contribution of the biological sciences but also of philosophy and religion. The Holy Father welcomed this idea and entrusted the definition of the statutes of this proposed body to His Eminence Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, the first President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers (today the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care), the Ministry of the Roman Curia with which the Pontifical Academy for Life maintains a special relationship of co-operation.

Prof. Jérome Lejeune was the first President of the Academy, but he died shortly after the publication of the founding 'Motu Proprio' and after his appointment as President, in April of the same year - 1994. The present President is Prof. Juan De Dios Vial Correa, formerly the Rector of the Pontifical University of Santiago, Chile.

The Statutes and Working Orientations of the Pontifical Academy for Life

As regards the structure of the Pontifical Academy for Life, it would perhaps be useful to know that it is governed by an Executive Council made up of five members who are Academicians with a President and a Vice-President, all of whom are appointed by the Holy Father. The Ordinary Members of the Academy, who cannot be more than seventy in number (at the present time there are fifty-one Ordinary Members) are also appointed by the Holy Father. In addition, there are a non-statutory number of Corresponding Members (at the present time there are eighty-three Corresponding Members) who are appointed by the Executive Council, which in doing so employs the criteria of geographical representation, expertise, and witness.

What it is important to grasp about the statutes is that all members are required to adhere to a 'Declaration of Service to Life', which commits them to defend the right to life from conception to natural death and to reject that set of techniques and practices which today science makes available against life (artificial fertilisation, destructive trials and experiments, etc.).

Article 1 is also of interest, and indeed I would say that it constitutes the heart of the statutes: I quote 'The Pontifical Academy for Life, with its seat in the Vatican, has been established by the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II with the purpose of studying questions and issues relating to the defence of life from an interdisciplinary perspective; informing those in positions of importance within the Church, the various institutions of the biomedical sciences, and socio-health care organisations, in a clear, rapid and capillary way, about what has been the subject of study; and instructing, in a way which respects the Magisterium of the Church, in favour of a culture of life. In its specific autonomy as envisaged by the present statutes, the Academy will be linked to the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers' (and of quotation).

Three verbs stand out in this article: 'to study', 'to instruct' and 'to inform', and reference is made to an interdisciplinary methodology.

On this point, article 13 lays down that 'the scientific and interdisciplinary activity of the Pontifical Academy for Life must maintain a keenly-felt link with the pastoral service of the presence of the Church in the world of health care and health, basing itself on a wish to co-operate with non-Catholic and non-Christian medical doctors as well, as long as they recognise that the dignity of man and the inviolability of human life from conception to natural death, as proposed by the Magisterium of the Church, are an essential moral foundation of medical science and medical practice' (and of quotation).

The specific field of the Pontifical Academy for Life is not directly pastoral in character but scientific, and it promotes an interdisciplinary interaction between the biological sciences, philosophical anthropology, ethics and law, and the other human sciences, taking as its central point human dignity as it is understood and upheld by the doctrinal philosophical teaching of the Church and the Magisterium.

The scientific output of the Pontifical Academy, in the sense previously defined, is now visible, even though it is in truth little known about.

The Pontifical Academy for Life dedicated the first year of its life - 1995 - to absorbing, and reflecting on, the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, which was published, on 25 March 1995.

Three publications were devoted to this Encyclical. The first was entitled 'La Causa della Vita' ('The Cause of Life') (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1996), and contained the proceedings of the second General Assembly (which was held on 20-22 November 1995). This publication amounted to a description and outline of the principal themes of this Encyclical. A real and authentic scientific and interdisciplinary comment on Evangelium Vitae was edited by Prof. Ramón Lucas Lucas and was then published by BAC (Madrid, 1996). This weighty and relevant work was translated into Italian with my participation and editorial supervision, joined by Prof. Lucas Lucas, and was published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana (the Vatican City, 1997).

In the meantime, the Pontifical Academy for Life had tried to provide itself with a method of research and work in line with its goals as set out in its statutes as captured and expressed by the three verbs expounded in the Motu Proprio and then taken up by the statutes - 'to study, to inform, and to instruct' in matters relating to the scientific, philosophical, ethical and legal questions and issues concerning human life.

The method of the Academy could be described as 'interdisciplinary integration. I would like to express what I mean by this phrase with the following practical example. Leading up to the third General Assembly a subject was chosen which appeared to be the most fundamental subject there is in the field of the defence of life - the study of the 'identity and the statute of the human embryo'. A task force made up of specialists (to be precise, twelve in number) was set up on this subject. These were specialists who were able - each one according to their respective perspective and expertise - to approach the subject and thereby to explore its various aspects: the historical, the sociological, the biological, the anthropological-philosophical, the theological, the legal, and so forth.

This task force met on more than one occasion to engage in detailed reflection and shared interaction in meetings which lasted a whole day. The written papers were collected and collated and sent to all the Members of the Pontifical Academy for Life before they were called to the General Assembly so that they could study them and make their own contributions to the Assembly.

There was, therefore, a stage of detailed investigation by the task force and then the stage of the development and finalising of the papers by the General Assembly.

At this point the publication of the proceedings then took place, which are now to be found in the form of different volumes: the Italian edition (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1988) which contains the papers produced by the task force; the Spanish edition produced by the Spanish publishing house 'Ediciones Internacionales Universitarias, Eiunsa'; the English edition, which also contains papers of a number of Members of the Pontifical Academy which were read during the General Assembly; and an edition in Hungarian. Soon there will also be a French edition.

Once the stages of study had been completed and the publication had been produced, the idea was to offer these publications and their contents to a wider public in various cities and different countries during study meetings organised with the participation both of specialists from the Academy and local experts. In this way various study meetings were organised within a year: seven in different Italian cities; three in different cities in Poland; in Santiago in Chile; in Madrid; in Mexico City; and in Croatia.

This period of time dedicated to the 'diffusion of accrued thought' conformed to the verbs 'to inform and to instruct' which follow the period of time of the 'to study' in the formula as expressed by the statutes.

But I would like to devote a few further words to this method which has been adopted by the Pontifical Academy for Life, a method which I call 'interdisciplinary integration.

The subjects of bioethics cannot be approached unilaterally from a single perspective (whether biological, philosophical or religious) because the conclusions would run the risk of being insufficient or reductive. We need to look at this reality in all its richness. The embryo offers material for analysis to the biologist, and to the geneticist, but being a human embryo it calls for philosophical-anthropological analysis and requires interaction and exchange with theology; and the protection of the human embryo involves ethics and law.

But this is not solely a matter of juxtaposing these various contributions - what is needed is an explanatory and justifying link, where the autonomy of each discipline as regards its subject and its method is maintained.

This approach places us face to face with the important and sensitive question of an epistemological nature relates to the relationship between the different forms of knowledge and the different sciences. We can no longer think of employing a hierarchical model of the various disciplines. This is because each one of them has its own sphere, its own method, and its own methodology, and for this reason each science enjoys its own autonomy.

However, this autonomy cannot be absolute because it must remain open to the contributions of the other sciences and disciplines, given that all of them are directed towards knowledge of a certain aspect of reality. This concept is also expressed by Vatican Council II (Guadium et Spes, n. 36).

One must, therefore, reject the reductionism of those who would like to engage in a single analysis - for example on the merely biological aspects, all other aspects and one must also reject the integrism of those who would like to think that everything is contained within a single perspective - for example the philosophical perspective - almost as though everything else could be deduced from that perspective. These two methodologies end up by corresponding

The method that we have wanted to pursue is that which is defined, following certain experts (Lonergan), as 'the method of integration.

Our analysis must begin, that is to say, with the observation of reality, in this case of biological reality especially in its deep aspect - the genetic aspect. But in relation to the biological data, examined with the methodology specific to biology, philosophical analysis must be established which is of a different character and is directed towards solving the questions of definition and meaning: what is the embryo? Why is the embryo as it is during its development? What is its anthropological significance? The analysis is by its nature justificatory and to do with intellection and reflection.

In their turn the philosophical data, which cannot be in contrast with the biological reality from which they start, must be placed at the foundations of the ethical analysis. The foundation of ethics starts from the question about good, but in applying an ethical analytical structure to the embryo, to the search for its good and our duties towards it, one cannot ignore the philosophical premise: who the embryo is.

We could continue to clarify the contribution of theology according to the relationship between faith and reason (Fides et Ratio) and the relationship between ethics and law, in line with what is taught in the third part (nn. 70-73) of Evangelium Vitae. Indeed, a study meeting and a publication on this relationship between 'Evangelium Vitae and Law' was organised jointly by our Academy, the Pontifical Council for the Family, and the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts.

During the fourth General Assembly which took place in 1998 a subject was addressed which is also crucial - the human genome. The title of that encounter was: 'the Human Genome: the Human Person and the Society of the Future'.

With the same method involving the creation of a task force of experts, and the method of interdisciplinary integration, the subject of genetic engineering in its various facets and dimensions (genetic diagnosis, gene therapy, the genetics of the person, the genetics of populations, and biotechnologies) was also addressed. The multiple and formidable ethical questions and issues, as well as the hopes for the benefit of mankind, connected with this subject, were brought out.

The subsequent General Assemblies (those of 1999, 2000, and 2001) were also held using the same methodology and the same stages of analysis. They addressed the following subjects: 'the Dignity of the Dying Person' (1999); 'Evangelium Vitae: the Five Years of its Relationship with Society' (2000); and 'the Culture of Life: Pre-suppositions and Dimensions' (2001). The respective proceedings of these General Assemblies were subsequently published.

Other Forms of Action and Scientific Support

The Pontifical Academy for Life carries out its research not only through a General Assembly preceded by a task force, but also through research groups which culminate in a publication of varying levels of breadth in the form of a document or an actual published volume.

This was how the subjects of cloning and human stem cells were addressed. The respective documents were made public in a number of languages and have achieved a wide circulation: 'Declaration on the Scientific and Therapeutic Production and Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells' and 'Reflections on Cloning'.

During meetings of work-groups, other important subjects have been addressed, such as animal and vegetable biotechnologies (which gave rise to a publication), and xenotransplantation, on which two publications are currently being prepared - a summarising document and a volume containing various studies carried out by the work-group.

The wish and readiness of the Pontifical Academy for Life to offer up-to-date documentation is expressed at the present time above all else through the use of Internet, and our web site number is written at the end of this paper.

Lastly, I may observe that among the members of our Academy, there are a number of gynecologists of evident renown: Prof. Adriano Bompiani, Prof. Thomas Hilgers, Prof. Denis Cavanagh, as well as various specialists on the subject of natural methods of fertility.

We believe, therefore, that the bond between the Pontifical Academy for Life and Catholic gynecologists can become increasingly keenly-felt and active.

The PAV web site: www.academiavita.org