Dialogue, Autumn 1976, pp. 12-44, for a complete discussion of early WHEN DOES THE SPIRIT attitudes towards abortion). As quoted by Joseph F. Smith in Doctrines of Salvation (2:280-81), President Young stated, "When the spirit leaves them ]mortal ENTER THE BODY? bodies] they are lifeless; and when Jeffrey E. Keller the mother feels life come to her infant, it is the spirit en~ering the body preparatorb’ similar question was corollary that abortion is to the immortal existence.’" (emphasis addressed on a national tantamount to murder, with the original. See also JD 18:258). The level early in 1981, when same eternal implications of killing First Presidency of Joseph F. Smith A the United States Senate an adult. While never directly was likely referring to Brigham convened hearings to addressing the issue of spirit-body, Young when they wrote, "True it determine when "human many leaders of the Church in the is that the body of man enters life" begins. At issue was a middle to late 1800s equated pre- upon its career as a tiny germ statement in an anti-abortion bill natal killing with infanticide. John embryo, which becomes an infant, sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms Taylor, speaking of abortionists, quickened at a certain stage by the which read, "Present day scientific wrote., "They are murderers and spirit whose, tabernacle it is, and evidence indicates a significant murderesses of their infants .... the child, after being born, likelihood that actual human life and you that want them, take develops into a man." ("The exists from conception." them, and you that do will go with Origin of Man," Messages of the First Presidency, vol. 4, p. 205). A Although several distinguished them, and go to perdition with scriptural precedent for this view scientists, philosophers, and them and l tell you that in the may be inferred from Luke 1:41, theologians spoke in the name of the Lord." (Journal of "’when Elizabeth heard the congressional hearings on both Discourses, 22:320, 1881). In 1884, salutation of Mary, the babe sides of the issue, the Senate George Q. Cannon stated, "They [abortionists] will be damned with ]John] leaped in her womb; and committee was unable to Elizabeth was filled with the Holy substantiate Helms’s claims the deepest damnation; because it ,Ghost," although this scripture regardivg scientific evidence. The is the damnation of shedding has not been explicitly quoted for National Academy of Sciences innocent blood, for which there is this purpose.. subsequently declared that no forgiveness" (JD, 26:14-15). As Helms’s bill dealt "with a question late as; 1916 Joseph Fielding Smith Unfortunately, although to which Science can provide no wrote, "It is just as much murder "quickening" has been a popular answer." Leon E. Rosenburg of to de,~troy life before as it is after concept, there is no scientific the Yale Medical School added, "I birth, although man-made laws phenomenon recognizable as believe that the notion embodied may not so consider it; but there is quickening. The fetus begins to in the phrase ’actual human life’ is One who does take notice and his move as soon as the biochemical contractile proteins actin and not a scientific one, but rather a justice and judgment is sure" religious, metaphysical one." (’.Relief Societ~ May, azi~le, 3:367-68). myosin come together, and the (Science News, May 9, 1981, p. 293.) Seven months later, the First mother does not feel this movement until months later. As the original question implies, Presidency gave their "unqualified endorsement" of Elder Smith’s Perhaps in part because of this, the religious, metaphysical issue of writing. (RS Magazine, 4:68). modern Chu~rch authorities have "human life" in Mormon theology not publicly supported President may boil down to the question of However, unlike other anti- Young’s hypothesis. when the spirit enters the body. If, abortion groups such as the Interestingly, since Joseph as Mormons believe, physical Catholic Church, which Fielding Smith’s 1917 statement, death is that moment when the recognized a fixed period of ~he Church has also rejected the spirit leaves the body, it follows "ensoulment," the Mormon notion that abortion is murder. In that a fetus is not yet alive in the Church’s position has never been answer to the question "is fullest sense until iit unites with a derived from an assumed time produced abortion termed as spirit to form a living soul. when the spirit enters the body. murder or not?" Elder David O. There are basically three periods Brigham Young also associated McKay wrote in 1934, "To this when a :fetus could acquire its abortion with infanticide, question the Church has not made spirit: 1) at conception, 2) at although not as explicitly as did an authoritative answer. It does, "quickening" (the first ~novements John Taylor and George Q. however, condemn abortion as a of life felt by the mother, usually Cannon (see ]D, 12:120-121); still, very sinful act." (Letter to Tiena in the fourth month of President Young did not believe Nate.) Nearly forty years later the pregnancy), or 3) at birth. that ~he spirit enters the body First Presidency affirmed this Interestingly, each of these three until the time of quickening, position: periods ]has had its. supporters though he did not differentiate .As the matter :~tands, no definitive among the leaders of the Church. between abortion before statement has been made by the Lord The idea that the spirit enters quickening and abortion after way or another re~gardin,g the crime of the embryo at the moment of quickening. (see Bush, "Birth .c~bortion. So far as is known, he has not conception logically entails the Control Among the Mormons,"’ listed it alongside the crime of the

42 SUNSTONE / MARCH 1985 unpardonable sin and shedding innocent we first breathe the breath of life." ("And if ye abide in my covenant, blc, od. That he has not done so would (Ensign, April 1977, p. 3). and commit no murder whereby suggest that it is not in that class of crime Despite the various opinions to shed innocent blood"), Patriarch and therefore that it will be amenable to voiced by General Authorities on Smith stated, "What do you think the laws of repentence and forgiveness. when the spirit enters the body, or He’s talking about? Is it possible (Church News, 27 Jan, 1973, p. 7). perhaps because of them, the First that He was referring to abortion? One possible reason why Presidency of Joseph Fielding Tlqink about it! Is there more abortion is not classed with Smith’s era concluded in 1970: innocent life than that of the murder is the possibility that the We may say that there is no direct unborn child? And why is murder spirit has not yet entered the referred to when the Lord is body. Not surprisingly, David O. revelation upon the subiect of when the spirit enters the body; it has always been a talking about marriage?" (Ensign, McKay believed that the spirit May 1978, pp. 29-30). enters the body at birth. In the moot question. That there is life in the same letter quoted above, he child before birth is an undoubted fact, It should be noted, however, wrote: but whether that life is the result of the that despite the sentiments affinity of the child in embryo with the expressed above that human life Undoubtedly the nearest approach we life of its mother, or because the spirit has exists from conception, the fetus hm, e to definite knowledge on this subject entered it remains an unsolved mystery." has never been accepted as having is the statement made by the Savior, (Letter to W. Dean Belnap, Feb. 22, full individual rights by society in 3Nephi 1:13, wherein he said: ~970.) general or the Church in "Tomorrow come I into the world.’ This particular. For example, if human indicates that the spirit takes possession of This admission, however, has in life truly begins at conception, the the body at birth. Life manifest in the no way diminished the Church’s embryo, from the moment of body before that time would seem to be abhorrence of abortion. Indeed, conception, would enjoy all of the dependent upon the mother. although the Church did not rights any individual has in our directly address the Senate society, such as inclusion in the President J. Reuben Clark, citing Hearing on Human Life in 1981, the same scripture, similarly National Census, and medical aid previous editorials in the Church and Social Security payments stated, "But it seems possible that News indicated the Church would the spirit may not be present in the under Aid to Families with support the proposition that Dependent Children. In the case embryo till at least shortly before human life exists from conception. birth, whether the birth be regular of a miscarriage, birth and death A Church News editorial from records should be filed and the or premature." ("Man: God’s August 3. 1974, approvingly Greatest Miracle," BYU address fetus buried in a cemetery as is quoted Sen. James Buckley of New customary for other, older, June 21, 1954, reprinted in York: "Anyone with the biological pamphlet form). Another scripture individuals. In the Church, such a facts knows that a fetus, from the miscarried fetus would be entitled not cited by the brethren that may moment of conception, is a living refer to the spirit’s inhabitation of to a name, a blessing and a burial, human.’" (See also the CN editorial none of which are currently given. the body at birth is Moses 6:59, January 1, 1975.) Elder James E. "... ye were born into the world Faust supported this view in the From the perspective of the by’ water, and blood, and the spirit April 1975 general conference; at medical profession, the concept of which I have made, and so became the same time he explicitly human life from conception is also of dust a living soul .... " disassociated the concept of fraught with difficulties. First of A second reason why abortion is "human life" from any dependence all, there is no consensus about viewed differently from murder is on a spirit-body doctrine: when conception (the beginning of an idea propounded by Brigham pregnancy) actually occurs. The Young--that the union of body Some say, as did the Supreme Court of the dictionary definition of and spirit prior to birth, or even United States, that it is only a theory that "conception," which presumably shortly after birth, is reversible. human life is present from conception. most of the commentators quoted As recorded in Wiiford Woodruff’s This is contrary to insurmountable above had in mind, usually refers journal, October 15, 1867, medical evidence .... Because she feels it, to the moment when an egg is President Young said: every mother knows there is sacred life in fertilized by sperm. However, the the body of her unborn babe. There is also W,hen some people have little children medical profession does not life in the spirit, and some time before born at 6 cc-~ 7 months pregnancy & they recognize the beginning of birth the body and spirit are united. live but a few hours then die they bless When they do come together, we have a pregnancy until the dividing, them (~c. but I dont do it for I think that human soul. (Ensign, 5:27-29, May developing egg implants itself in such a spirit has not a fair chance for I the uterus some six days after think that such a spirit will have a chance 1975) fertilization. This is the earliest af occupying another Tabernacle and Three years later, Patriarch point at which pregnancy can be developing itself. Eldred G. Smith intimated for the detected clinically. Thus, the Food first time since 1916 that abortion and Drug Administration labels Whether intentionally or not, may be murder, although he was the I.U.D., which works by Elder Bruce R. McConkie refuted probably speaking to the concept preventing implantation of the Brigham Young’s sentiments as of "human life" rather than spirit- fertilized egg, as a contraceptive well as indirectly supporting the body and did not intend his (preventing pregnancy) rather notion of spirit-body association at remarks to represent a change in that as an abortifacient (inducing birth when he recently wrote, Church policy. After quoting abortion). (To date the Church has "Mortality is fully upon us when Doctrine and Covenants 132:19 not singled out the I.U.D. as being

MARCH 1985/SUNSTONE 43 less acceptable than other forms of to recognize human life from contraception.) Other points when conception, any medical procedure ’conception" may occur are (1) at which increases the rate of two weeks, when the possibility of miscarriage could be viewed as twinning is past (thus no involuntary manslaughter. This "individual" exists until then), or would include amniocentesis, x- MORMONS (2) when the fetus demonstrates rays, cancer chemotherapy, and awareness of or responsiveness to medications for the mother. An external stimuli, spontaneous interesting case along these lines muscular movement, reflexive involves the hydatidiform mole, AND THE action o:r a positive brain scan which is a potentially cancerous (EEG). Any of these criteria would cluster of cells sometimes found in a woman’s uterus. Removal of this mole theoretically could be murder, as it is nothing more than LAW NOTE: U.S. Senator lake Garn, (R) Utah, has reinstated a fertilized egg gone awry. Martha Bradley a Constitutional amendment "to prohibit the practice [of In conclusion, then, the abortion] except when the life of the mother is threatened." e w endeavors always seem According to the release, Garn’s so-called "Human Life Church’s stand against abortion to demand some sort of a Amendment" has been introduced in the past four Con,¢cresses apparently does not derive from a justification. In this case, and currently has twenty cosponsors. doctrine fixing the time when the N it’s easy. Every year sev- Garn says he is "’disturbed by the ’outraxeous’ claims made spirit enters the body. Further, eral fine articles are pub- by many abortion proponants which would lead peoph’ to although General Authorities believe that the enactment of any human life amendment ’will ~i~!.~:~i~ ]ished on various aspects of result in women bein,~ put in iail for having miscarria,~es. We have held various opinions about Mormonism and religion. They the subject of spirit-body, no even hear such extreme references as ’coerced maternity."" come in a variety of different "The crucial fact too often oc’erlooked in this debate is that "orthodox" view exists in the forms. Some are historical, some once a woman becomes prey, nant, she already has a baby. The Church; it is a "moot question." are sociological. Others are simply human life was established at t,he moment of conception .... An interesting corollary doctrinal the fascinating ramblings of an Medical amt biolo,gical science h’aches unequivocally that life point developed in the process is interesting mind. begins a~ conception, not a [sic] birth.’" that life can exist without direct What is almost always true, Says Garn, "May people insist that the ri,~ht to choose is spiritual inhabitation, through however, is that many really paramount even over a right to life. Aside fronl the obvious fact "affinity" with another spirit, in that the riy, ht to choose is mean.iny, less until the ri,ght to life has this case the mother’s, may be important articles slip by un- been ,guaranteed there must be some sort of linlit on the type of required. Finally, although the noticed or unabsorbed because we behavior that can be justified by some all-encompassiny, riy, ht to fetus does not enjoy all of the were either too busy to read them choose. "" rights of other individuals in the or perhaps because they appeared negate a finding of "death" Church, the Church has generally in journals t]hat we did not have according to the report of theAd affirmed its right to live. access to. Hoc Committee of Harvard On the other hand, sometimes Medical School. (See Wardle and ]EFFREY E. KELLER will ,~raduate ~rom the something we read grabs our Wood, A Lawyer Looks at Abortion, University o[ Utah medical school in May interest, and we want more--but 1982, chap. 2.) this yec~r. He is the father or two. don’t know where to go to get it. "Queries and Comnlents" welcomes su,~,~eshons This new .column will attempt to No matter which definition of for topics from readers. Contact Gary Ber~ifera, satisfy both these concerns. First conception is used, once a decision "Queries (~ Contnlents" editor, in care SLINSTONE. of all we want to call certain out- by society or the Church is made standing studies to your attention, giving a short synopsis of the most important and intriguing points that the author has pre- sented. And next, we’ll provide a short bibliography of other inter.- esting articles that have been writ..- lien on similar subjects. Hopefully it will both help you and inspire you to do additional in-depth reading. Allen, James B. "’Good Guys’ Vs. ’Good Guys’: Rudger Clawson, John Sharp, and Civil Disobedience in Nineteenth-Century Utah." Utah Historical Quarterly 48 (Spring 1980): 148-74. In "Good Guys" vs. "Good Guys" James B. Allen addresses the paradox faced by nineteenth-- ,century Mormons in the wake of antipolygamy legislation. He asks what conditions justify disobe-

44 SUNSTONE / MARCH 1985 dience to civil laws when they Common Law:’ The Extra- This article won the Dale L. appear to be morally reprehensible legal Punishment of Seduc- Morgan Award for the best schol- at the same time assuming the ers in Early Utah." Utah arly article published in Utah importance of upholding and Historical Quarterly 51 (Fall Historical Quarterly during 1984. honoring the law? 1983): 308-27. The policy of civil disobedience When Howard Egan killed his Linford, Orma. "The Mormons, as announced by John Taylor in wife’s seducer and the father of the Law, and the Territory 1879 was part of a greater her illegitimate child he was exe- of Utah." The American ]ournal American tradition of dissent cuting extralegal measures famil- of Legal History 23 (July 1979): among those who found certain iar to many Americans who 213-35. laws offensive to fundamental assumed that vigilante action best Throughout its history America values and beliefs. The Mormons served justice. argued for a higher law as the has had a tradition of legalism only true basis for judging the According to Kenneth Cannon which holds a special regard for value of any single piece of Utah’s Mormon maiority con- the law as both idea and a system legislation. doned such measures. The cases of of institutions. As one legal histo- Allen suggests that the duality those who killed seducers, as well rian put it "People in the United as editorial reaction in the press, States were anxious to reduce irnplicit in this question lines up attest to the existence of con- public issues to legal issues, and to "good guys" against "good guys" tinued support for such extralegal justify their notions of policy by on opposite sides of the issue-- activities. In fact, in the period appeal to legality. Behind such using the examples of Rudger between 1851 and 1877, there thinking was a widespread popular Clawson and John Sharp to illus- were no convictions of men who conviction that in a meaningful trate how the Church dealt with had extralegally punished a rela- sense men had ’rights’ which they both. tive’s seducer or rapist. Rudger Clawson was the first could go to court to enforce." polygamist to be tried under the As defense attorney in the Egan In this article Orma Linford asks Edmunds Act. He adopted the case, young George A. Smith several questions about the loyal mainline Mormon approach voiced the justification for the Mormons and their relationship to which was to avoid confrontation extralegal punishment of seducers, the law. How did the Mormons but when caught accept conviction a principle of "mountain common reiect this tradition of legalism and without denying the principle. In law," when he said: "The principle, why? How was Mormon Utah dif- so doing he received the warm and the only one, that beats and ferent from the rest of the coun- consistent support of Church throbs through the hearts of the try? What was the legal system leaders and in the years imme- entire inhabitants of this territory, created by the Church in Utah? diately following ascended to a is simply this: The man who se- By the time the Saints had leadership position in the Church duces his neighbor’s wife must die, settled in the Great Basin, they hierarchy as President of the Quo- and her nearest relative must kill had developed an elaborate philo- ru:m of the Twelve Apostles. him!"- sophy about the law, lawyers, and ]By contrast ]ohn Sharp became Although there was not uni- legal institutions. Much of this a "dissenter from the dissenters." versal approval of the practice, thinking was developed through He chose in the confrontation to many prominent community and experience. The Latter-day Saint give up the principle rather than Church leaders seemed to support church’s history of confrontation continue to disobey the law. Sharp extralegal measures to compensate with the law began with the was looked upon by many as a for the inadequacies of legal stat- Prophet Joseph Smith, who was traitor to the cause and found his utes and institutions. Mormon accused of various crimes, includ- Church position affected by his historian 13. H. Roberts found the ing imposture, banking law decision to succumb. He was even- frequent turning to the "un- obstruction, treason, murder, tually asked to step down from his written law" a tribute to the "high arson, robbery, and a number of position as bishop where he had sense of honor, the virility, the other felonies. In Kirtland, in served for more than twenty strength, and the courage of the Nauvoo, and wherever they years. community’s manhood." settled, the Saints seemed to invite For both men the question was trouble and experienced repeated one of conscience. Each evidenced Cannon says that although vigi- legal confrontations. They even the fact that private and public lante justice in territorial Utah discovered the insufficiency of morality are for many one in the was similar to the experience in court systems led by their own sarne and that one’s personal other parts of the country--it did men, following laws of their own integrity rests upon the complex attempt to bring order to society making. relationship between one’s actions and to control crime--for the ancl one’s sense of right. Finally, Mormons controlling seduction In territorial Utah the Mormon Allen suggests that the moral had the additional benefit of being majority began to work outside rightness or wrongness of any good public relations. In a time the legal parameters of the law decision is not always absolute and when many in the nation were and created parallel law enforce- that one should reserve judgment accusing the Mormon patriarchy ment bodies with their own iuris- and carefully examine motives, of licentiousness, this intolerance diction, authority, and laws which intentions, and integrity. of seduction seemed to be tangible clearly constituted a challenge to evidence of the high moral stan- federal authority. Cannon, Kenneth L. II. "Mountain dards of the Church. The law and the legal institu-

MARCH 1985/SUNSTONE 45 tions which made it possible for Church, A1 and Janice Perry. "The Grime, Mary Cochran. "Chief the rest of American society to Long Arm of the Lawyer." Justice Daniel Gantt of the have their civil rights and liberties Utah Holiday, February 1979, Nebraqka Supreme Court: secured did not in the same way 26-35. Letters and Excerpts from meet the needs of the Mormons. his Journal, 1835-1878." The resulting concept of law was Dyer, Robert G. "The Evolution of Nebraska History 61 (Fall quite different from the tradi- Social and Judicial Attitudes 1980): 280-309. tional American interpretation of Towards Polygamy." Utah u,e rule of law as a protector of Bar Journal 5 (Spring 1977): Linford, Orma. "The Mormons private rights and a regulator of 213-35. and the Law--The Polygamy civil society. To the Mormons, Cases." Utah Law Review 9 individual rights were subordinate Ellsworth, Paul. "Mobocracy and (Winter 1964): 213-35. to the good of the group. The the Rule of Law: American Linford, Orma. "The Mormons, establishment of order had already Press Reaction to the the Law, and the Territory been accomplished through God’s Murder of Joseph Smith." of Utah." American Journal of laws. To them, laws, both spiritual BYU Studies 20 (Fall 1979): Legal History 23 (July 1979): and temporal, were created for the 71-82. 213-35. growth of the kingdom. The Mormons’ special contempt for Galliher, J. F. and L. Basilick. Moody, Eric N. "Nevada’s Anti- judges and for the law itself was "Utah’s Liberal Drug Laws: Mormon Legislation of 1887 directly in opposition to the typical Structural Foundations arid and Southern Idaho Annexa-. nineteenth-century American Triggering Events." Social tion." Nevada Historical Society viewpoint. Problems 26 (1979): 284-97. Quarterly 22 (Spring 1979): 21. Linford concludes that this rela- tionship was also different because Gardner, Martin R. "Illicit Legis- Schweikart, Larry. "The Mormon of Latter-day Saint idealism, lative Motivation as Suffi-. Connection: Lincoln, the utopianism, and the complete cient Condition for Unco~- Saints, and the Crisis of merging of Church and state stitutionality under the Equality." Western Humanities which in the rest of the country Establishment Clause--A Review 34 (Winter 1980): were so ,carefully separated. Case for Consideration: The 1-22. Utah Firing Squad." Washiny~- SELECTED WORKS ton University Law Quarterly Swenson, Raymond T. "Resolu- (Spring 1979): 435-99. tion in Civil Disputes by Allen, James B. "’Good Guys’ vs. Mormon Ecclesiastical ’Good Guys’: Rudger Gardner, Martin R. "Mormonism Courts .... " Utah Law Review Clawson, John Sharp, and and Capital Punishment: a 23 (1978): 573-95. Civil Disobedience in Doctrinal Perspective, Past Nineteenth-century Utah." and Present." Dialogue 12 Wells, Merle W. "Law in the Utah HistoricaI Quarterly 48 (Spring 1979): 9-26. Service of Politics: Anti- (Spring 1980): 148-74. Mormonism in ldaho Terri- tory." Idaho Yesterdays 25 Cannon, Kenneth L. II. "Mountain Gee, Elizabeth D. "Justice for All (Spring 1981): 131-54. Common Law:’ The Extra- or for the ’Elect’? The Utah legal Punishment of Seduc- County Probate Court, Winder, Lori. "LDS Position on ers in Early Utah." Utah His- 1855-72." Utah Historical the ERA: An Historical torical Quarterly 51 (Fall 1983): Quarterly 48 (Spring 1980): View." Exponent II 6 (Winter 308-27. 129-47. 1980): 6-7.

RICK GRUNDER - BOOKS

source Early Mormon Background and Parallels Frcqucnt catalogucs and lists issued in Mormonism to 1850 and Gc’neral rare books & n~anuscripts, early medieval to twentieth oenturv

915 MAXWELL TERRACE o BLOOMINGT()N, INDIANA 474()1

¯

46 SUNSTONE / MARCH 1985