A hypothetical question from someone not grounded in biology

[Mr.Blank1.5]

I already know the Church is against experimentation on human embryos.

I know that a human person is a person from the moment of conception. Whether or not twins (monozygotic or something else) arise is irrelevant.

My question is…if scientists were to artificially create twins from a single zygote…would the original zygote cease to exist with the end result of two new ones being created?

This is probably a stupid question yes, but just like what I said in the title, public history majors don’t deal with these details.

 

[TheDoors]

I already know the Church is against experimentation on human embryos.

I know that a human person is a person from the moment of conception. Whether or not twins (monozygotic or something else) arise is irrelevant.

My question is…if scientists were to artificially create twins from a single zygote…would the original zygote cease to exist with the end result of two new ones being created?

This is probably a stupid question yes, but just like what I said in the title, public history majors don’t deal with these details.

This would be no different than the process by which many naturally-occuring twins are born. A single zygote splits, then splits, and splits into two seperate entities.

 

[wmw]

The Ask an Apologist forum has this answer:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=375856&highlight=Twins

The case of artificial twins maybe different if cells (one of three, tens, thousands, millions?) were destroyed and two were separated and restarted then what you are thinking about one death and two new souls may be correct.