Donum Vitae ten years later

Abstract

A comprehensive examination of the Vatican “Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation” (Donum Vitae) requires a correct understanding of the general principles supporting all the arguments. “ They depend fundamentally on an anthropology, that is to say, on a vision of man, of his nature and dignity, of his origin and destiny, which is the basis of the solution of the various cases treated” (J. Ratzinger). They can be summarised as follows: man is a creature of God and human life is as personal gift of Love in love; the human person is a unified totality; the dignity of the conjugal act is a unity of human plenitude. Such principles called special attention to all authors who developed accurate essays, comments, and studies on the document. The Catholic Roman Church’s response took into account man’s future and his fundamental and biologically established dignity, as well as the basic values at the origin of human parenthood, in order to examine the morality of calling new human beings into existence by artificial techniques. Such appraisal allows to up-date the important subjects of bioethics faced on 1987 by the document of the Vatican Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.