We secure sacred things against defamation or violation. Sacred things, then, we say are inviolate. Human life, for example, is inviolate. It is one of the things we hold most sacred. We have strict laws to protect it.
Some cultures hold that all life is sacred.
There is a certain logic to this conviction, which becomes clear if we think for a moment about the nature of life. Scientist teach us that life begins with matter and that man is its highest form. Philosophers and theologians teach us that man has both an animal and a rational nature. We are rational animals with souls that are immortal. We might say that matter aspires to life, life to immortality.