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Moral LifeDeep dive

Since the Church hasn't defined when ensoulment occurs, are abortion and embryo research acceptable?

Moral Life

The short answer

No. Differing opinions on when the soul is infused never created doubt that abortion is gravely wrong. And since a human person may be present from conception, even the probability suffices to forbid killing an embryo absolutely. The human being must be respected as a person from conception.

The constant teaching

The Declaration on Procured Abortion (7) explains that the Fathers, pastors and Doctors of the Church have always taught the same doctrine, and that varying opinions on when the spiritual soul is infused raised no doubt about abortion's wrongness. In the Middle Ages, when many held the soul was not present until after the first weeks, a distinction was made in assessing the sin and the penalties, and good authors were more lenient for that early period. But no one denied that procured abortion, even in the first days, was objectively grave, and this condemnation was unanimous. Vatican II condemned abortion most severely: life must be protected with extreme care from conception, and abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes. Paul VI declared this teaching unchanged and unchangeable.

Ensoulment and embryo research

Evangelium Vitae (60) teaches that even if a spiritual soul cannot be detected empirically, scientific research on the embryo gives reason a strong indication of a personal presence from the first appearance of human life: how could a human individual not be a human person? What is at stake is so serious that the mere probability that a human person is involved suffices to forbid absolutely any intervention aimed at killing a human embryo. So, beyond all scientific and philosophical debate, the Church has always taught that the fruit of human procreation must be given unconditional respect from the first moment of its existence: the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from conception, with the inviolable right to life of every innocent human being.