Do babies whose conception was prevented by birth control go to Heaven?

[Cocoa_Cat]

What happens to babies whose conception is prevented by birth control? Do they go to Heaven? Do they have souls?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

If your understanding of conception means only the fertilization of the egg by sperm then prior to conception there is no human life, just an unfertilized egg, and therefore no person and thus no soul. There are practically infinite possibilities of human life that could have been created had something not happened. If someone hadn’t been hit by a bus, if someone wasn’t killed in a war, if someone had caught a taxi five minutes earlier, etc. etc. etc. Birth control would be no different.

However, if you are including implantation in your understanding of conception then, yes, the embryo is considered to have a soul:

Certainly no experimental datum can be in itself sufficient to bring us to the recognition of a spiritual soul; nevertheless, the conclusions of science regarding the human embryo provide a valuable indication for discerning by the use of reason a personal presence at the moment of this first appearance of a human life: how could a human individual not be a human person?

• Donum vitae

They would be considered in the same situation as babies who die before baptism:

1261 As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,” allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.

• Catechism of the Catholic Church

The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness, even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in Revelation.

• International Theological Commission