human being holds equally for men and for women. The common dignity of men and women and their reciprocity is the authentic basis for affirming their complete dignity. Reciprocity implies in fact that there is neither a static and undifferentiated equality between men and women, nor an inexorable and irreconcilable conflictual distinction.28
3.3. Work and the Family
25. As both a right and a duty,29 work expresses and fulfills the dignity of human beings. It demonstrates their ability to dominate the world around them; it contributes to the development of their personality,30 and makes the growth of civilization possible. The whole of society and the organizations and policies of the States must generate conditions that will lead to making it possible for everyone to work. We cannot forget that "work constitutes a foundation for the formation of family life, which is a natural right and something that man is called to. These two spheres of values—one linked to work and the other consequent on the family nature of human life—must be properly united and must properly permeate each other. In a way, work is a condition for making it possible to found a family, since the family requires the means of subsistence which man normally gains through work".31
26. The specific contribution that a father and a mother offer through their work to society should be recognized. What a mother contributes to the family and through it to society deserves greater attention; moreover, this has attracted the attention of some of the most distinguished thinkers of our times. This specifically maternal contribution can be seen more obviously in the area of up-bringing, health, education, religious formation and all the activities that affect the well being of the family and its members. John Paul II has stressed the importance of this contribution many times.32 Naturally, emphasis on the mother's contribution should not overshadow the importance of the father's specific contribution because their contributions are complementary.
27. Concretely, in a family, a man and a woman complement one another's work and cooperate with one another for the full realization of their conjugal life and the upbringing and well being of their children. Keeping in mind that motherhood—together with fatherhood—is part of the most excellent gift from the Creator to humankind, namely, the transmission of life, the organization of society and the laws of the States should make it possible for the structure and the remuneration of work to aid women in fulfilling their vocation as mothers, and in the gestation and up-bringing of their children.33
4. THE RIGHT TO LIFE
4.1. The Key to the Other Rights
28. The affirmation of the dignity of every human being has as its immediate and fundamental consequence the fundamental right to life which is recognized in article 3 of the Declaration: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person". Human beings have this right from the very moment their existence begins, i.e., from the moment of conception and not only from birth.34
29. From the first instant of his conception, man received his personal reality from God. The person has a dignity in his being that is innate: that is, both the person and his dignity are situated on the ontological plane. It does not matter what manifestations man may have during the course of his evolution; from the moment of his conception, he is always a person whose dignity must be recognized in every circumstance of his existential process.
30. First of all, man has the right to life, the fundamental key to all the other rights as an inviolable right that is guaranteed and protected in every situation, not only by State laws and policies, but also through a real culture of life, "for no offense against the right to life, against the dignity of any single person, is ever unimportant".35 This is a right that is fundamental, in the strongest meaning of the term, because the other rights would lose their consistency through the lack of a subject and support. A distinction must be made b