[1] Though the Academy is considered an autonomous entity, it is linked to the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers and various other dicasteries of the Roman Curia.
They are selected to represent different branches of biomedical sciences and ethics which are closely linked with problems concerning the promotion and defense of life.
The Academy is responsible for the development and promotion of many of the Catholic teachings on questions of medical ethics including procreation, IVF, gene therapy, euthanasia and abortion.
[8] In 2021 it published a report calling for a global policy shift towards home care and intergenerational community support for older people.
[9] In February 2022 Father Carlo Casalone SJ, a member of the Academy, called assisted suicide "the greater possible common good" in comparison to euthanasia.
Academy president Vincenzo Paglia said that the inclusion of non-Catholics, "either belonging to other religions or nonbelievers", was meant to demonstrate that "the protection and promotion of human life knows no divisions and can be assured only through common endeavor".
[13] The new member whose views were most at odds with Church teaching was Nigel Biggar of the University of Oxford who, though an opponent of assisted suicide legislation, once suggested abortion might be licit during the first eighteen weeks of a pregnancy.