Movimenti per la vita

[Autom. eng. transl.] The associative realities known as "Movements for life" (MpV) have arisen with the aim of defending and promoting the value of human life "from conception to natural death" in the face of the weakening, in terms of civil laws, of recognition of every human being as a subject who holds the inalienable right to life. The first movements of opinion for the defense of human life can be traced back to the second half of the twentieth century when, in various countries, the debate on the decriminalization of abortion and on the introduction into the legal systems of more or less permissive laws began to become consistent. . This moment is particularly significant because it marked the beginning and the need for a deeper reflection on the dignity of human life before birth, or, in more "technical" terms, on identity and status - biological, ethical, anthropological, legal - of the conceived. This reflection is closely connected to the belief that the maximum element of prevention of voluntary abortion is the recognition of the full humanity of the conceived child, accompanied by the sharing of the difficulties of pregnancy, as opposed to the dominant mentality that purports to reduce prevention only to contraception ( prevention of conception) and that neglects or censures the gaze on the conceived child. It should be added that the history and developments of the MPVs show that they have been able to combine reflection on the value of human life in its infancy with reflection on the value of suffering and dying human life, reflections inevitably flowed back into "Bioethics" and "Biodirect". The contribution reviews some of the several thousand realities that operate in the world animated by the common ideal of affirming, in society, the equal value of every human life since conception. In particular, it dwells on the Italian Movement for Life whose activities of the Italian MPV - alongside which hundreds of local initiatives should be remembered - invest five different levels in a coordinated way: 1) welfare 2) educational-cultural-social, 3) political, legislative, 4) jurisdictional, 5) European and international. Finally, attention is paid to the "One of us" European citizens' initiative and to the European OneOfUs Federation for life and human dignity.