Do Embryos Have Souls?

Father Tad Pacholczyk Director of Education Making Sense of Bioethics The National Catholic Bioethics Center March, 2008 Do Embryos Have Souls? People are sometimes sur- problem from which our prised to hear that the wrongness of moral affirmation remains destroying a human embryo does independent… not ultimately depend on when that embryo might become a person, or That being said, the moral when he or she might receive a soul teaching of the Church is that the from God. They often suppose that human embryo must be uncondi- the Catholic Church teaches that tionally protected and treated as destroying human embryos is unac- if it were already ensouled, even if ceptable because such embryos are it might not yet be so. It must be persons (or are "ensouled"). Yet the treated as if it were a person from magisterium of the Church has the moment of conception, even never definitively stated when the if there exists the theoretical pos- ensoulment of the human embryo sibility that it might not yet be so. takes place. It remains an open Why this rather subtle, nuanced question. The Declaration on Procured position, instead of simply de- Abortion from the Congregation for claring outright that embryos are the Doctrine of the Faith in 1974 ensouled, and therefore are per- phrases the matter with consider- sons? First, because there has able precision: never been a unanimous tradition on this point; and second, be- This declaration expressly cause the precise timing of en- leaves aside the question of the soulment/personhood of the moment when the spiritual human embryo is irrelevant to the soul is infused. There is not a question of whether we may ever unanimous tradition on this destroy such embryos for re- point and authors are as yet in search or other purposes. disagreement. For some it Interestingly, ensoulment dates from the first instant; for has been discussed for centuries, others it could not at least pre- and so-called delayed ensoulment was cede nidation [implantation in probably the norm for most of the uterus]. It is not within the Christian history, with immediate competence of science to de- ensoulment gaining some serious cide between these views, be- momentum of its own beginning cause the existence of an im- in the 1600s (and probably repre- mortal soul is not a question in senting the position most widely its field. It is a philosophical held today). Augustine seemed to www.ncbcenter.org Making Sense of Bioethics Do Embryos Have Souls? shift his opinion back and forth dur- “overgrown embryo.” Hence, it is not an action that would be, in some ing his lifetime between immediate necessary to know exactly when God sense, worse than murder. The hu- and delayed ensoulment. In the ensouls the embryo, because, as I man person, then, even in his or her 1200s, Thomas Aquinas held that sometimes point out in half-jest, even most incipient form as an embryonic human ensoulment occurred not if it were true that an embryo did not human being, must always be safe- right at the first instant, but at a time- receive her soul until she graduated guarded in an absolute and uncondi- point removed from the beginning. from law school, that would not tional way, and speculation about the This, he argued, would enable the make it OK to kill her by forcibly timing of personhood cannot alter matter of the embryo to undergo de- extracting tissues or organs prior to this fundamental truth. velopment and become "apt" for the graduation. reception of an immortal soul from Some scientists and philoso- God (by passing through simpler ini- phers will attempt to argue that if an tial stages involving “vegetative” and early embryo might not yet have re- “animative” souls). Even today in ceived its immortal soul from God, it various quarters, the discussions con- must be OK to destroy that embryo tinue, with new embryological details since he or she would not yet be a like twinning and chimerization im- person. But it would actually be the pinging upon the debate, and new reverse; that is to say, it would be more conceptual questions arising from the immoral to destroy an embryo that had intricate biology surrounding totipo- not yet received an immortal soul tency and pluripotency. than to destroy an ensouled embryo. We must recognize that it is Why? Because the immortal soul is God's business as to precisely the principle by which that person when He ensouls embryos. We do not could come to an eternal destiny with need an answer to this fascinating God in heaven, so the one who de- and speculative theological question, stroyed the embryo, in this scenario, like counting angels on the head of a would preclude that young human pin, in order to grasp the fundamen- from ever receiving an immortal soul tal truth that human embryos are in- (or becoming a person) and making violable and deserving of uncondi- his or her way to God. This would be tional respect at every stage of their the gravest of evils, as the stem cell existence. Rather, we only need to researcher would forcibly derail the grasp the key insight that every per- entire eternal design of God over that son on the planet is, so to speak, an unique and unrepeatable person, via Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as the Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. Father Tad writes a monthly column on timely life issues. From stem cell research to organ donation, abortion to euthanasia, he offers a clear and compelling analysis of modern bioethical questions, addressing issues we may confront at one time or another in our daily living. His column, entitled “Making Sense of Bioethics” is nationally syndicated in the U.S. to numerous diocesan newspapers, and has been reprinted by newspapers in England, Canada, Poland and Australia. www.ncbcenter.org .

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