The culture of life means respect for nature and protection of God’s work of creation. In a special way it means respect for human life from the first moment of conception until its natural end.

In this statement John Paul II links Catholic “pro-life” ethics to a broader moral vision he often described as a “culture of life.” Respect for creation is presented as a unified duty: care for nature is not separable from care for human beings, because both belong to God’s creative act. The second sentence specifies how this principle is applied in Catholic moral teaching—human life is to be protected at every stage, explicitly including prenatal life (“from the first moment of conception”) and the dying (“until its natural end”). The quote thus frames abortion and euthanasia as violations of the same foundational respect owed to creation and to the Creator.