Abortion + Aquinas + Council of Vienne(?)

[davidv]

Because there has always been disagreement about such. When “personhood” exists has always been a philosophical point. The Catholic Church does not define “personhood” to exist at conception (though, personally, I would have no problem if She did).

The Catholic Church does teach that human life begins at conception.

Does that help?

My question was meant to highlight a problem with attempting to separate that which is not separable.

362 The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that "then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."229 Man, whole and entire, is therefore *willed *by God.

Emphasis mine.
My reading of the about indicates that the Church does define personhood and connects it directly with our creation.

 

[Vince1022]

My reading of the about indicates that the Church does define personhood and connects it directly with our creation.

Read the Catechism para 2270-2275—yes, the embryo is treated as a person, but this is not the same as the Church teaching the embryo is a person (nor does it say the embryo is NOT a person).

The constant teaching of the Church is that taking human life is never good, in and of itself, and taking innocent human life gravely wrong. It’s fundamentally about human life, not the more philosophical question about “personhood.”