It’s true that the Church does not define when ensoulment occurs. However, it teaches that every human being has a soul by the fact of being a human being. And a new individual of the human species has its beginning at conception. Human beings do have a distinct beginning. Before conception, there is simply specialized cells of the woman and man: ovum and sperm. After conception, a new and genetically distinct human individual begins.
I’m not necessarily doubting the data. It’s just that I’ve never seen the methodology which gives a reasonable basis for reaching such a far-ranging conclusion.
So we should keep our faith and theology secret just in case somone can use it against us, is what you’re saying.No, but discussing or debating these unknowns publicly can give pro choicers ammunition to fuel thier debates in favor of abortion. Example: a catholic theologian discuses what this post said in public, pro choicers may use that ammo to persuade persons to be on their side. The Catholic Church isn’t even sure themselves when life begins…therfore since it is in debate then you are not bound by it and can therefore in good conscience have this abortion of a glob of tissue (since we are arguing it might not fully be a baby yet.)
I worked with this for years. That is what happens. They look for any loophole and run with it.
There was no successful implantation, so the embryo was never carried. If you don’t carry, you cannot miscarry.
Thus a human clone grown from adult stem cells, which has neither been conceived nor is genetically distinct, cannot be ensouled.
Maybe, but by pushing ensoulment at conception as doctrine (it is not, never was, read Acquinas on the subject) your faction is both compromising logical integrity of Catholicism and preparing ideology for Holocaust 2.0.
Many (most?) contraceptives work in three ways: by preventing ovulation, making the uterus hostile to sperm AND ALSO preventing implantation of any conceived embryos. You can read it in the package insert that comes with the contraceptive under mechanisms of action. It’s called “preventing nidation.”
But what you want to do is hide. This is the same thinking that leads to cover-ups, e.g. “Our enemies will attack us if they know Fr. Joe is a pedophile, so let’s keep it quiet and transfer him to another parish.”
What am I hiding? Everything about the person exists at conception why is it not a person?
Cloning is a way of making an identical twin by means of extracting the nucleus of an ovum and inserting the nucleus of an adult cell. It creates a new embryo. The genetics are the same since the full genetic package of the adult cell is inserted into the ovum. But the process is the equivalent of concption since it creates a new human embryo—a new individual of the human species.
Lovely post. And one no can fully understand until they have lost a child.
So your view is that ensoulment happens during conception or a conception-equivalent process? What is a conception-equivalent process and how would you define one?
The Catholic Church did not justify the Holocaust either; but it created the philosophical groundwork for the eradication of the Jews which someone else then moved to exploit (in some cases with tacit approval of the hierarchy).
If everything about a person exists at conception then it means your life is fully determined by your genes (genetic determinism). Accepting this view leads to Gattaca.
Everything is there at conception, yes.
Yes embryo selection is always evil.
Hmm…don’t remember the Catholic Church ever wanting any Jews killed?
