Do miscarried babies have souls?

[BlackFriar]

That doesn’t mean for certain that the rational soul is present, but since humans are soul-body composites by nature, it is sensible to err on the side of caution as guanophore notes.

This view has been superseded for a number of reasons I believe:
(a) the delayed hominization view is starting to get new life amongst theologians. It is simplistic to assume Aquinas was wrong because he didn’t have good embryological knowledge. His view did not rest on the details of conception and fetal development. All that has happened is, as you say, the 40 days based on movement alone is too simplistic to define when the organs of sensibility and rationality have rudimentarily formed. Now it seems a matter of only 14 days which makes the discussion almost moot and now purely speculative.
(b) Baptism is no longer considered necessary to save souls from damnation. God is not, and never has, been limited to the Sacrament of water baptism. People can be saved regardless…certainly if there was no fault for Catholic parents not being able to baptise.

There is no great danger for which we need to err on the side of caution. Though if parents are distraught then obviously it is pastorally helpful to do so all the same as it personalises the situation and brings comfort and hope when their is irrational despair.

 

[LoyalViews]

I find the answer to this question, along with all regarded (name removed by moderator)ut, summarized in the Psalm 139:13-16.

13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Anglicized with Deuterocanonical Books and Apocrypha

 

[ahs]

I believe that a careful reading of the Catechism paragraph I mentioned in light of the Scriptures I referenced show that the soul is created immediately at the instant of conception.

 

[BlackFriar]

I believe a careful reading of Donum Vitae (1987) shows the Magisterium currently declines to take a position on the matter.

This Congregation is aware of the current debates concerning the beginning of human life, concerning the individuality of the human being and concerning the identity of the human person. …The Magisterium has not expressly committed itself to an affirmation of a philosophical nature, but it constantly reaffirms the moral condemnation of any kind of procured abortion.

The traditional teaching has always been that the soul is created immediately by God and infused at approximately 40 days.

 

[TheOldColonel]

Ensoulment at the moment of conception is the only sound presumption.