Life is short, so the saying goes. Here at L.I.F.E. we are going long, as in “for the long haul.” Liberty, life, freedom of conscience, and family structures face unprecedented challenges in the era of technological revolution, expanding government intrusion into daily life, and rapidly evolving social norms. The interface of natural sciences, medicine, and technology offers previously unimaginable vistas. At the same time, those disciplines and others, such as law, ethics, economics, and philosophy open potentials for abuse. 

L.I.F.E. is a new resource, tracking developments related to religious and political liberty, bioethics, and cultural expression. It is no neutral observer. Rather, it proposes a natural law ethic that presupposes and advocates certain first principals: the human person is a creature possessed of free will; societies of persons are the natural state of human persons, beginning with the family based on marriage of one man and one woman, and expanding to local, regional and international political structures; there exist inherent standards of good and evil not contingent on circumstance or intention but of their very nature; each human life is precious, unique and unrepeatable and demands the protection of law from conception to natural death; the free exercise of religion is fundamental to the legitimacy of a given political order; each person is endowed with unalienable rights including freedom of thought, speech, conscience, and religion; and each is obliged to respect the freedom of others and to fulfill the duties inherent to the flourishing of civil society. L.I.F.E. offers a critical assessment of the forces shaping the 21stCentury in light of those first principals. 

L.I.F.E.’s principal organs of commentary, advocacy, and study are the Saint John Paul II Bioethics Center, the Religious Liberty Observatory, and the Center for the Study of Bioethics & Law. 

The annual Saint John Paul II Bioethics Lecture presents academics, jurists, scientists, and others addressing timely topics in bioethics. The 2019 lecture, And Such Were Some of You: Homosexuality and the Bible, features renowned scripture scholar Rev. Sebastian Carnazzo, PhD. And the Center for the Study of Bioethics & Law offers a free university level course: Bioethics & Law 101, with many more in the pipeline.

Please take a stroll through our easy to navigate site. We think you will find in it sources that both delight and challenge.