PRINCIPLE OF

INVIOLABILITY OF
LIFE
REPORTER: OMM KULTHUM S. GAWAN, RN
 Inviolability or Sanctity of life -
principle of implied protection
regarding aspects of sentient life
that are said to be holy, sacred,
or otherwise of such value that
they are not to be violated as a
violation.
It is the theological or philosophical
understanding that all human life
has an inherent dignity, worth and
sacredness that sets it apart from
all other beings within the world.
 RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS
"Human life is sacred because from its
beginning it involves the creative action
of God and it remains forever in a
special relationship with the Creator.…
No one can under any circumstance
claim for himself the right directly to
destroy an innocent human being"
(Catechism, p. 544).
 RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS
Do not kill your children for fear of want.
We will provide for them and for you.
Surely killing them is a great sin. (Qur’an
17:31)
"And do not kill anyone whom Allah has
made sacred, except for a just cause"
(Qur'an 17:33).
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS
 As Arthur Dyck sees it, "Our lives did not and
could not originate and persist because we
valued it but because someone else valued
it, parents to begin with, but also a whole
network of individuals and groups. Our lives
depended upon and continue to depend
on the persistence of the moral behavior
that makes life, and the communal
protection of it, possible at all" (p.52).
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

A person should be treated as an end,

not as means to an end.
– Immanuel Kant
The doctrine of the sanctity of human life
teaches that "all human beings possess
equal dignity and worth regardless of the
level of maturity they have achieved.…
Thus, all humans—not just those who are
rational or self-conscious—retain the right
to life" (Hui, p. 148).