When John Paul II established the Pontifical Academy for Life in 1994, he assigned it the task of studying and providing information and training about the principal problems of law and biomedicine pertaining the the promotion of life, especially in the direct relationship they have with Christian morality and the directives of the Church's Magisterium. The Holy Father stated that a specific contribution would also have to come from Universities--particularly Catholic Universities--and from Centers, Institutes, and Commitees of Bioethics. (Evangelium Vitae, no. 98, 1995).

In the creation of this commission, we are fulfilling the request of the Holy Father and we dedicate it to him due to the profound gift he left the world in all of his philosophical and theological writings on the nature and dignity of the human person.