Why do we as Catholics believe that life begins at conception?

[EthanBenjamin]

Hello!
I am passionately and intensely pro-life, not just for religious but also secular reasons. In my advocacy, I’ve come across the question of why we as Catholics believe that life does begin at conception. I understand and accept the scientific reasoning for it, which is that at no other time does it make sense that life begins, but I was wondering what the theological argument was for life beginning at conception.
Thanks!

 

[edwest2]

I hope you find the following helpful:

catechism.cc/articles/life-begins-at-conception.htm

God bless,
Ed

 

[E_7]

God said to Jeremiah:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;…”

Jeremiah 1:5

 

[JimG]

Why should there be a theological argument. It is well established from a biological standpoint that a new and distinct individual of the human species has its beginning at conception.

 

[edwest2]

Why should there be a theological argument. It is well established from a biological standpoint that a new and distinct individual of the human species has its beginning at conception.

Our human dignity and uniqueness in creation was God’s doing. We are more than our earthly existence.

Pope John Paul II:

w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html

Peace,
Ed

 

[mdgspencer]

From conception, obviously the child is alive. Perhaps what you mean is when human life begins. However, a disabled person is still human. The fact that an embryo doesn’t fully function as an adult person does is no argument against the child being human.
Or does an unborn child have an immortal soul? Catholics generally believe that their unborn child who has died is in heaven, not only their children who have been born. Of course, a non-Catholic may not listen to this, but that is beside the point for Catholics.

 

[TimothyH]

Conception is a sacred act.

Man brings sperm. Woman brings egg. God brings spirit.

All three unite to create new life. All three are required for conception. If the spirit isn’t present then it isn’t life. Something without a spirit is dead.

God places the spirit into the fertilized egg at the moment of conception.

-Tim-

 

[jilly4ski]

We don’t need a separate reason to believe that life begins at conception, it is the truth, and faith should always based in the truth. It is the great thing about the Catholic faith, it is based in reason and truth. Now Catholics believe that each human is a special, unique child of God, and thus has been given the gift of life that we must not deprive them of, but that is a separate question than when life begins.

 

[EthanBenjamin]

Thank you all so much! I now have some reading to do. . .

 

[ComplineSanFran]

God said to Jeremiah:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;…”

Jeremiah 1:5

The Jeremiah text is a Jewish text, and you realize, yes? that Jews believe that life begins when the baby takes the first breath.

If you were going to exegete that particular verse, you’d probably be looking more at the theology of predestination (Jeremiah’s) than life beginning at conception.

It’s a lovely verse and all that, but Biblically, not so much a proof-text.

 

[clem456]

Hello!
I am passionately and intensely pro-life, not just for religious but also secular reasons. In my advocacy, I’ve come across the question of why we as Catholics believe that life does begin at conception. I understand and accept the scientific reasoning for it, which is that at no other time does it make sense that life begins, but I was wondering what the theological argument was for life beginning at conception.
Thanks!

Theology does not create reality.
Theology observes reality, studies it, and expresses it.

First and foremost, God reveals. Jesus himself is God’s fullest revelation. We did not have a theology to formulate a jesus, God gives himself to us in Jesus first.

Just the same with human life. God gave us life, first. We are man and woman, we procreate. Procreation helps bring a unique human being into existence.
We are human. At no point is a human being -not- a human being. All human beings are human at every unique stage of existence.

This is simply revealed for any human being to observe…
Now, as his creatures we are called to see, to listen and hear, to think, and to express that beautiful truth in theology.

 

[mdgspencer]

This is an interesting view. However, what Jews believe today, or perhaps some of them, there being different schools of Judaism today, might be very different fro the beliefs of Israel as expressed several thousands years ago in the Old Testament. Indeed, this very quote, “before you were born I consecrated you” indicates that the baby in the womb is the same person after being born.

The Jeremiah text is a Jewish text, and you realize, yes? that Jews believe that life begins when the baby takes the first breath.

If you were going to exegete that particular verse, you’d probably be looking more at the theology of predestination (Jeremiah’s) than life beginning at conception.

It’s a lovely verse and all that, but Biblically, not so much a proof-text.

 

[clem456]

This is an interesting view. However, what Jews believe today, or perhaps some of them, there being different schools of Judaism today, might be very different fro the beliefs of Israel as expressed several thousands years ago in the Old Testament. Indeed, this very quote, “before you were born I consecrated you” indicates that the baby in the womb is the same person after being born.

It also indicates God’s intimate and timeless knowing of each person. Each person “thought of” in the infinite mind of God before they are brought into existence. God who has no time has always “conceived” us.
This is one of my favorite passages.

I suppose that modern science would have influenced the viewpoint of ancient Judaism in this area, as it has in so many other areas.

 

[petra22]

While thinking along these lines please don’t forget to consider what was happening at the conception…thousands of possible sperm were swimming toward the egg. Thousands might not even cover it… God chose YOU, from ALL the rest.

I’m not in the medical field but an interesting thing I heard one time, at that moment, the moment of conception, that fertilized egg has all the DNA of a unique individual. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but it sure made an impression on me. The determination of eye color, hair color, shape of nose, etc… Marvelous, miraculous… I know I’m not expressing myself for readers, but just the thought leaves me awestruck… It all goes along with the plan God has for us. Most of us never feel that unique or special all our lives, but we should…

 

[JimG]

The Jeremiah text is a Jewish text, and you realize, yes? that Jews believe that life begins when the baby takes the first breath.

That seems odd, and is surely incorrect from the standpoint of embryology. Do they believe that the child in the womb is not alive? Is it dead? Is it a different species than human? Are sonograms pictures of a non-living non-human species?

 

[Ender]

The question of when life begins is answered by science, not theology. It is not a Catholic “belief” any more than it is doctrine that the Earth circles the sun. And science is not at all ambivalent on the matter.The development of a human being begins with fertilization… (Langman’s Medical Embryology)

Although life is a continuous process, fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed.…(Human Embryology and Teratology)

*“Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)… The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” *(Patten’s Foundations of Embryology)
Ender

 

[Micosil]

The question of when life begins is answered by science, not theology. It is not a Catholic “belief” any more than it is doctrine that the Earth circles the sun. And science is not at all ambivalent on the matter.The development of a human being begins with fertilization… (Langman’s Medical Embryology)

Although life is a continuous process, fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed.…(Human Embryology and Teratology)

*“Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)… The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” *(Patten’s Foundations of Embryology)
Ender

 

[clem456]

The question of when life begins is answered by science, not theology. It is not a Catholic “belief” any more than it is doctrine that the Earth circles the sun. And science is not at all ambivalent on the matter.The development of a human being begins with fertilization… (Langman’s Medical Embryology)

Although life is a continuous process, fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed.…(Human Embryology and Teratology)

*“Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)… The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” *(Patten’s Foundations of Embryology)
Ender

Love it.
Natural science senses. It looks, listens, touches, sees, hears, thinks. It discovers, interprets, and proposes what is revealed.
Theology also senses, informed by other sciences. It observes, interprets, and proposes what is revealed in relation to God as the revealer.

The observations you cite above help inform theology. It’s not as if theology proposes anything that is not reason-able in regards to conception. The Church’s teaching on human life is not valid merely because theology makes the claim, it is valid because it is so.
True that theology proposes things which cannot be physically seen, but are in the meta-physical realm.

Neither natural science or theology create their own reality. They discover objective reality. In Catholicism this truth is expressed by the repeated words of Christ in the Gospels:
“To see”, “to hear”, “you’ve heard that it was said”, "from the beginning…"etc…
A fundamental requirement of the Christian call is to be a good observer of what is revealed.

Both science and theology require common sense, or the ability to make true observations that can be commonly held.
(in other words, common sense is not self absorbed, or “relative” to my self alone.) My self is not the arbiter of reality, as in a vacuum separated from others. If what I sense is true, it is observable in common with others also. (although others might deny what they see).

 

[on_the_hill]

When else would it begin?

The development of a human being begins with fertilization… (Langman’s Medical Embryology)

This brings up a question. What’s the difference between conception and fertilization? Is there a difference?

 

[ComplineSanFran]

That seems odd, and is surely incorrect from the standpoint of embryology. Do they believe that the child in the womb is not alive? Is it dead? Is it a different species than human? Are sonograms pictures of a non-living non-human species?

The most Orthodox Jews state that:

‘Human life begins in three stages. The stage of conception is the moment when the soul comes into this world (Sanhedrin 91b) and your potential is defined (Niddah \6h/Tanchumri). At this stage the fetus is called maya b’alma, mere matter (.Yevamot 69b) and not a human being. The second stage begins at 40 days. The fetus is considered a human being, yet the mother’s life will take precedence and the fetus can be aborted if it is the cause of a health threat to the mother. The third stage is birth. Birth is the moment the head emerges, or in a breach situation the majority of the body. From that moment on, the child’s life and mother’s life are separate lives of equal importance.’

Here is the citation:

momentmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/When-does-life-begin.pdf