1. Elio Sgreccia was president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, director of the international medical ethics journal Medicina e Morale, president of the Ut Vitam Habeant Foundation and the Donum Vitae Association of the Diocese of Rome, and honorary president of the International Federation of Bioethics Centers and Institutes of Personalist Inspiration.
Elio Sgreccia entered the seminary in Fano and was ordained a priest on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul: 29 June 1952.
Elio Sgreccia first served as a spiritual minister to the youth of Catholic Action.
Elio Sgreccia completed university degrees in classical letters, philosophy, and theology, and worked as a professor, vice rector, and rector at Pius XI Pontifical Regional Seminary in Fano until 1972, when he became vicar general of the Diocese of Fossombrone.
Elio Sgreccia was consecrated as a bishop on 6 January 1993 by Pope John Paul II.
Elio Sgreccia was one of four prelates over the age of 80, known for their distinguished contributions to Catholicism, whom Pope Benedict XVI elevated to the rank of cardinal in the consistory on 20 November 2010.
Elio Sgreccia was made cardinal deacon of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria and was installed on 12 March 2011.
From 1974 to 1984 Elio Sgreccia served as a spiritual minister at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, where he was involved with the spiritual formation of health care professionals and the investigation of biomedical moral issues.
Elio Sgreccia became a member of the Committee for Guidelines on Genetic Counseling and Testing of Italy's Ministry of Health in 2001.
Elio Sgreccia authored Manuale di bioetica, presenting a reason-based philosophical approach to bioethics that dovetails with the natural law and the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
Elio Sgreccia referred to his approach as "ontologically grounded personalism", which applies a three-point or "triangular" method of scientific data, philosophical anthropology and reason-based claims of moral obligation for action in order to make ethical judgments.
On 25 March 2011, Elio Sgreccia received an honorary doctorate from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, whose faculty of bioethics was the first in higher education to offer a complete degree program in bioethics: bachelor, licentiate and doctorate.
Elio Sgreccia died on 5 June 2019 in his home in Rome, aged 90.
Elio Sgreccia's funeral was held on 7 June 2019 in St Peter's Basilica and was presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals.
Elio Sgreccia published some 400 works in Italian and various other languages.