Embryo ensoulment

According to the newest report issued by the Guttmacher Institute, 926,200 abortions were performed in the US in 2014. A holistic approach which accounts for biblical, biological, and philosophical truths must conclude that these unborn represent human beings with full personhood. Biblically, God the Almighty Creator establishes the worth and value of humanity by making all people in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27). From Scripture, a progression can be given which traces this image from adults, to the unborn, to conception. Biologically, it is an undisputed fact that a new, complete, genetically-distinct, individual human being is present at conception. Although attempts to redefine conception have been made, embryologists have consistently defined conception as the moment of fertilization for over 100 years. Abortion also cannot be justified philosophically. Some of the most common philosophical arguments for abortion are evaluated and discussed: (1) embryos lack consciousness, (2) abortion prevents children from being born into poverty, (3) monozygotic twinning proves personhood cannot begin at conception, (4) rape justifies abortion, (5) incest warrants abortion, and (6) abortion is often necessary to save the life of the mother.

According to the newest report issued by the Guttmacher Institute, 926,200 abortions were performed in the US in 2014. A holistic approach which accounts for biblical, biological, and philosophical truths must conclude that these unborn represent human beings with full personhood. Biblically, God the Almighty Creator establishes the worth and value of humanity by making all people in His own image (Genesis 1:26–27). From Scripture, a progression can be given which traces this image from adults, to the unborn, to conception. Biologically, it is an undisputed fact that a new, complete, genetically-distinct, individual human being is present at conception. Although attempts to redefine conception have been made, embryologists have consistently defined conception as the moment of fertilization for over 100 years. Abortion also cannot be justified philosophically. Some of the most common philosophical arguments for abortion are evaluated and discussed: (1) embryos lack consciousness, (2)...

At a time when bioethical issues are at the top of public and political
agendas, there is a renewed interest in representations of the embryo in various religious
traditions. One of the major traditions that has contributed to Western representations of
the embryo is the Jewish tradition. This tradition poses some difficulties that may deter
scholars, but also presents some invaluable advantages. These derive from two components,
the search for limits and narrativity, both of which are directly connected with the manner
in which Jewish tradition was constructed in Antiquity.
The article accomplishes three goals:
􀁳􀀀 To introduce some central elements in ancient Rabbinic literature on the subject of
the embryo and its representation;
􀁳􀀀 To present this body of literature as clearly as possible, noting some of the difficulties
encountered by scholars who engage in its study;
􀁳􀀀 To explain how the literature’s textuality came about, examining the particular
sociopolitical circumstances of Judaism at that time, including the reasons for the
delay in the production of scientific texts, transmitted as such, as compared to other
philosophical or religious traditions.
The article claims that these circumstances engendered a tradition peculiarly relevant
for the study and teaching of medical ethics today.

Anthony A. Akinwale: Political Philosophy and Human Nature in Thomas Aquinas ● Mario Di Giacomo: Alteridad, indigencia y esperanza. Una lectura de la fenomenología de la plegaria según Jean-Louis Chrétien ● Andrzej Maryniarczyk: The Dispute over Delayed Animation: When Does a Human Being Begin? ● Jason Nehez: AI Can Never Think: The Uniqueness of Human Thought ● Kaz Kukiela: Did Aquinas Justify the Transition from ‘Is’ to ‘Ought’? by Piotr Lichacz ● Antonius Alex Lesomar: Discovery of the Internal Structure of Being by Andrzej Maryniarczyk ● Jason Morgan: Meso-Metaphysics and Paradigmatic Environmental Anti-Modernism: Bruno Latour’s Down to Earth and the Rejection, and Embrace, of Metaphysical Necessity ● Brian Welter: Saint Thomas en plus simple by Jean-Pierre Torrell

This is the second portion of my book on abortion rights. This chapter analyzes the policy of the Catholic Church concerning reproductive rights in order to demonstrate that it is profoundly immoral. This chapter is dedicated to Justices Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett, and yes, this is meant ironically.

Marsilio Ficino's view on ensoulment, which can be extrapolated from his critique of natal astrology, relies on the relations of metaphysical proportion between the different levels of life and being which are central to Platonic philosophy. Drawing primarily on Plotinus, Ficino describes the emergence of life in the embryo as a process in which the World Soul is the true agent. For him, the 'human nature' that is present in the developing embryo attracts into the mother's womb the seed of 'human nature' which is present in the World Soul's vegetative power. Once channelled into the womb, the World Soul's vegetative power animates the embryo's body. Now endowed with organic life, the embryo becomes irresistibly attractive to the rational soul, which in this way is drawn down to it and becomes embodied. For Ficino, the moment when 'rational' ensoulment happens is completely irrelevant to prefiguring one's life path, contrary to what was claimed by natal astrology. Nevertheless, it leaves an important mark on one's physio-psychological makeup.

""Comment l’âme vient-elle à l’embryon?
Ce n’est pas la même chose d’envisager l’embryon comme le réceptacle incident d’une âme tombée des cieux, ou comme un corps s’éveillant à la vie. C’est pourquoi il faut tout d’abord répondre à cette question : quel rapport le corps entretient-il avec son âme ?
Cet ouvrage explore la perception de l’âme dans les deux grands courants entre lesquels se partagent les sources grecques depuis les Présocratiques : les tenants d’une épopée de l’âme tombée du ciel, attelée à un corps et cherchant à regagner le monde des esprits purs, et les irréductibles de l’âme non séparable qui estiment à l’inverse qu’on ne peut penser l’âme indépendamment du corps qu’elle anime.
L’enquête est menée dans différents corpus : philosophes et médecins, textes bibliques et tradition rabbinique, gnoses païennes et chrétiennes, Pères de l’Église et chrétiens marginaux. La troisième partie envisage, dans ces corpus, la rencontre de l’embryon et de son âme, qu’il est convenu d’appeler l’animation de l’embryon : d’où vient l’âme ? Quand s’unit-elle au corps en gestation ? Pour adopter un langage plus moderne : l’embryon est-il un végétal, un animal ou un humain à part
entière ?
L’enquête s’achève à la fin du ve siècle. Tout est en place. Quelques ouvertures vers les questionnements des vie et viie siècles montrent que c’est bien sur ces fondations antiques que se bâtira la réflexion médiévale (byzantine et occidentale), avec ses retombées juridiques et éthiques. Aujourd’hui encore, bien des problématiques autour de l’embryon rejoignent les interrogations des anciens Grecs, et parfois leurs réponses.""

This study of the philosophical and patristic texts of the second-fifth centuries, explores Christian theories of reproduction in the context of Hellenic dualist discourse and embryology. I argue that due to the specific metaphysical principles of Christian doctrine, the church fathers were bound to balance the dualist lexicon, which they often used, against holistic anthropological and Christological statements. Patristic theories of reproduction represent a vivid example of the balanced Christian holistic thought, which imbibed plenty of Hellenic concepts, yet remained true to the fundamental principles of Christian doctrine.

A partir d'un dossier de textes de Syméon de Thessalonique et de Gennadios Scholarios, l'article examine les accusations portées contre Grégoire de Nysse à propos de ses théories sur l'origine de l'âme (transmise ou non à l'embryon par la semence du père). L'opinion de Scholarios sur Grégoire de Nysse est tributaire de la querelle sur le purgatoire au concile de Florence, où les Latins utilisèrent les conceptions de Grégoire sur le salut universel.
Studying some texts of Simeon of Thessalonica and Scholarios Gennadios, the article examines the charges against Gregory of Nyssa about his theories on the origin of the soul (transmitted or not to the embryo by the father's semen). The opinion of Scholarios on Gregory of Nyssa depends on the dispute, during the Council of Florence, about purgatory, where the Latins used the thought of Gregory on universal salvation.

L'article étudie la façon dont s'est constituée une pensée chrétienne sur l'embryon, entre Platon et la Bible, à partir de trois philosophes chrétiens du 6e siècle: Enée de Gaza, Zacharie le Scholastique et Jean Philopon.
The article examines how a Christian thought on the embryo was established ,  between Plato and the Bible, by three Christian philosophers  of the 6th century, Aeneas of Gaza, Zacharias Scholastica and John Philoponus.

The dispute over delayed animation, although it has its beginnings already in ancient philosophy and culture, started for good only in contemporary times when the right to kill unborn children (so-called abortion) entered the canon of constitutional law and, what is even stranger, started to be proposed for inclusion into basic human rights. Despite being discussed nowadays mainly in medical and legal sciences, the problem involves disputes of an ethical, religious and ideological nature. In these discussions one can notice a clear lack of anthropological and metaphysical argumentation that would address the question about the beginning of the human being (which entails the question about the beginning of being per se) in the light of common properties that belong to really existing beings, and the metaphysical laws that govern the manner in which things (including human embryos) exist. This article discusses understandings of the human being as they are found in Plato’s, Aristotle’s and Thomas Aquinas’s philosophical anthropology. It is this triad of approaches: Platonic, Aristotelian and Thomistic, that allows one both to notice the specificity of Aquinas’s approach and to resolve the dispute concerning delayed animation.

This essay will closely evaluate the approach of Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas to the question of human ensoulment, treating immediate rational ensoulment at conception, Maximus’s position, and delayed hominization, Thomas’s position. Aquinas argues that from the semen human development proceeds through a series of generations and corruptions. So when the body becomes vegetal in its development, the form of the semen is thrown away (abiecta) and the vegetal form is induced (inducitur), and so on. For Maximus, however, this Aristotelian approach to human development presents a devastating problem for the creative wisdom and the “logic” of Christ’s Incarnation. A careful examination will show that both Maximus and Thomas assert the same thing about the instantaneous rational ensoulment of Christ, but the implications are quite different for these theologians. Finally, the essay explores key implications these two great theologians bring to contemporary ecclesial discourse over the dignity of life.

The question of the “status of the embryo in Islam” has to be asked not only in theory, i. e. in science, but also in practice, i. e. in German society. Since Muslims constitute by far the largest religious group in Germany after the Christians, it is important to notice also Muslim positions especially on important social issues and to discuss theses issues with them. One of these questions is e. g. the debate on the status of prenatal human life. In my study for the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung I therefore describe, how Muslims answer the question of the status of the human embryo, which positions they take and on which basis. Finally, I present Christian positions in order to discuss, how an agreement between Christians and Muslims on the question of the status of the embryo could look.