Do tiny embryos go to heaven?

[EnglishTeacher]

Does the Church teach at what point a human being has an immortal soul? Is it from the moment of conception? I have been wondering about this because I recently had a chemical pregnancy (very early miscarriage), and I wonder if there is any chance of seeing my baby in heaven. (I was only a very few weeks along; the embryo would only have been the size of a poppy seed according to Google.) Perhaps that is kind of pathetic, but it was my only positive pregnancy test in 3.5 years of marriage, so I got my hopes up and am still having a hard time with the disappointment and sadness.

 

[FCS]

Exactly. It is a unique human being with a soul.

 

[Weave]

The soul is created at the moment of conception. There isn’t a definitive teaching on what happens to the souls of the unborn but many theologians have proposed theories as to what is possible to happen.

 

[Greenfields]

Many of us have little souls waiting for us in heaven

 

[Wife.of.Gabriel]

Is it from the moment of conception? I

Yes, from the moment of conception is what the Church teaches.

I wonder if there is any chance of seeing my baby in heaven.

Absolutely! Trust in God’s Abundant Mercy!

Perhaps that is kind of pathetic, but it was my only positive pregnancy test in 3.5 years of marriage, so I got my hopes up and am still having a hard time with the disappointment and sadness.

My husband and I miscarried our first mutual child at 5 weeks and 5 days old in November. The priest I spoke to after suggested we choose a unisex name for our baby as even though it’s known scientifically that the sex was determined at the time of conception, there was no way for us to know if we had lost our son or daughter. We googled lists of unisex names and decided on Misha Kai (Gift from God).

I pray you will get pregnant again and ask you to pray the same for me.

 

[Ender]

That human life begins at conception is not just what the church teaches, it is what science teaches. Virtually any textbook on embryology will say this, usually within the first few pages.

 

[EnglishTeacher]

I certainly believe that human life begins then. I guess I mainly just wondered if they have an immortal soul right away at that early stage, and if they go to heaven.

 

[TheLittleLady]

We do not know.

The Catechism and documents from the Church teach us to trust these lives to the mercy of God.

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c1a1.htm#1261

[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,"64 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.

 

[twoangels]

Does the Church teach at what point a human being has an immortal soul?

Not exactly. It’s important to understand that the Latin word for soul is anima. It’s where we get the words animal and animate, and inanimate objects. The soul is what makes something a living thing. According to Aquinas there are different types of souls and only human beings have immortal rational souls. He also speculated that the embryo starts out like a plant, then an animal, and then human in regards to soul, and there had been distinctions in Church law between the formed and unformed fetus in regards to the gravity of contraception and abortion. Quickening was considered an important time of transition for the soul (quickening being when the woman first feels her child move). More liberal pro choice Catholics will point to this in order to argue against the pro life position, though they dismiss how severely immoral Aquinas views contraception and even early abortion.

It’s really the discovery of the ovum and fertilization that changed part of the discussion. Before the understanding was that the man simply had seed which he planted into the woman. So as far as Aquinas was concerned, semen was more like a fertilized pre-embryo. Physicians in the early 20th century began arguing that a new human being distinctly comes into being at the time of fertilization which they called conception. The Catholic Church dropped its distinction between formed and unformed fetus, and quickening is no longer considered important as we now know the child moves long before the mother is able to feel the movements.

In the medical community though, the word conception got moved to implantation rather than fertilization, the word now only referring to the start of a pregnancy rather than the start of a new human life. Afterall, there are things like molar pregnancies (however rare) where only placenta tissue grows and there is no embryo at all.

When it comes down to the issue though, the big thing is that you’re not going to have a formed living human being without a human soul. If it’s alive, it has a soul.

Do tiny embryos go to heaven?

This is related to the question as to whether any embryo or fetus who dies before they can be baptized goes to Heaven. It used to be taught that unbaptized babies went to Limbo but this was later rejected as mere theological speculation. The Church then dug deeper into the tradition and the conclusion was basically “We don’t know but we put our faith in God’s goodness and good will.”

 

[twoangels]

I was only a very few weeks along

Well, 4 weeks pregnant is only approx two weeks after ovulation. Pregnancy dating is weird as its dated from the supposed first day of your menstrual cycle. Its date changes because the dating presumes a 28 day cycle with ovulation happening on day 14. So if you had a shorter cycle, then day one is BEFORE your last period. Yes, weird.

A chemical pregnancy is a miscarriage before an embryo can be detected via ultrasound. 75% of pregnancies end this way and often without the woman ever knowing she’s pregnant.

I would say overall, it seems unclear to me as to whether a chemical pregnancy involves a death or if it is much like a molar pregnancy where no embryo comes into being. If 75% of pregnancies end this way usually with women never knowing, then it’s hard to say how many children we could meet. Or it could be that sometimes fertilization happens but an embryo doesn’t form and we can go back to formed and unformed embryo…but also acknowledge that its formation comes before we know we’re pregnant.

Either way, there’s a lot of mystery here that the Church doesn’t give an answer to beyond “Trust God. He loves you.”

 

[EnglishTeacher]

I would say overall, it seems unclear to me as to whether a chemical pregnancy involves a death or if it is much like a molar pregnancy where no embryo comes into being.

I had a positive pregnancy test four days in a row, so presumably the embryo implanted for a short time, because it had to have been producing HCG in order for a pregnancy test to show a positive. Clearly it wasn’t a viable embryo for whatever reason, but it was there.

 

[twoangels]

I had a positive pregnancy test four days in a row, so presumably the embryo implanted for a short time, because it had to have been producing HCG in order for a pregnancy test to show a positive. Clearly it wasn’t a viable embryo for whatever reason, but it was there.

The fertilized ovum doesn’t just become the embryo. It becomes the placenta and embryonic sac. Sometimes it divides and you end up with twins. In the case of a molar pregnancy, you end up with ONLY placenta tissue growing in the uterus and no embryo can be found. But instead of miscarrying early, the tissue turns into a tumor that overtakes the uterus.

It’s important to understand that the medical community views pregnancy as a state the woman’s body enters into, not as the presence of an embryo.

So yes, fertilization occurred, but there is yet a mystery between fertilization and a detectable embryo that has unclear spiritual implications. And since 75% of pregnancies end without the woman ever gets a positive pregnancy test, this question doesn’t just pertain to this one pregnancy.

It’s ambiguous. We don’t know. The Church doesn’t have an answer.

 

[EnglishTeacher]

A molar pregnancy would still give a positive pregnancy test.

Yes, I do know that, though I thought they were relatively rare.

Prayers for your loss.

Thank you.