Obstetrics Abortion

Ensoulment Wikipedia

Ensoulment refers to the creation of a soul within a human being or other creature. It is discussed most often in reference to abortion, because many religious denominations consider the presence of a soul to be what makes abortion, infanticide and murder all equally wrong. The Bible is often cited as stating that ensoulment occurs at conception.

The Biblical Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, states:

"And if men strive together, and hurt a pregnant woman, so that her fruit children come out, and yet no harm follows; the one who hit her shall surely be fined, according as the woman???s husband shall impose upon him; and he shall pay a fine as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth . . ."( Exodus 21:22-23)

Some commentators use this verse to support abortion: they state that the phrase "any harm" applies to only the mother. Others who oppose abortion hold it to apply to both mother and child. (See External Links).

Three other commonly cited Biblical verses are:

"For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor; and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while yet in his mother's womb." (Luke 1:15)

"But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace..." (Galatians 1:15)

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

These verses do not describe ensoulment, or a similar act, occurring in utero. Rather, they describe a special act of anointing or setting apart, which does not take place for regular people not specially identified and set apart by God. This leaves open the possibility that ensoulment may already have taken place prior to the special anointing described in these verses.

In Psalm 139 of the Bible, the psalmist describes God as purposefully forming him as an embryo in his mother's womb:
"You wove me in the womb of my mother, I will thank You, for with fearful things I am wonderful; Your works are marvelous, and my soul knows it very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret; when I was woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my embryo; and in Your book all my members were written; the days they were formed, and none was among them."
(The Interlinear Bible, ISBN: 1-878442-82-1). This verse is often cited as supporting the concept of the embryo being fully human once conceived.

Also raised is the Bible's usage of the phrase "breath of life". Some who support the right to abortion hold that this means that life begins with the first breath. They point to the use of this phrase with reference to Adam: "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7). Clearly, Adam had no living existence until that first breath. However, there is no Biblical indication whether this same process applies to newborns created in utero, to whom the mother supplies oxygenated blood through the umbilical cord. Also, scientifically, there is no functional difference between a baby which has just drawn its first breath, and the same baby a few seconds prior, when it was still a fetus.

The early Christian church held that ensoulement occurs at the moment of conception. For instance, the early Church father, Tertullian (160 - 220 CE), wrote:
"Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does" (Apology 27).

However, some subsequent Christian leaders held contradicting views. For instance, early in the thirteenth century, the Roman Catholic Pope Innocent III stated that the soul enters the body of the fetus at the time of "quickening" - when the mother first felt movement of the fetus. After ensoulment, abortion was equated with murder; before that time, it was a less serious sin, because it terminated only potential human life. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V issued a Papal bull which subjected those that carried out abortions at any stage of gestation with excommunication and the death penalty. Pope Gregory XIV rescinded this doctrine in 1591, reverting to the "quickening" doctrine, while in 1869 Pope Pius IX reversed his church's stance yet again. Currently, the Roman Catholic church holds abortion at any stage of gestation to be murder.

Last Modified:   2005-12-23