Abortion policy's legal and moral realities | National Catholic Reporter

Abortion policy's legal and moral realities | National Catholic Reporter An NCR Interview with George Dennis O'Brien

My response:

I disagree with the authorn and Aquinas on ensoulment. The question of ensoulment centers on what a soul is. Materialistically, which is the only thing we can test out, it is the life force that begins deliberative development and holds off entropy, which occurs rather markedly at death and does not occur before gasrulation.

Prior to gastrulation, removing stem cells from the blastocyst won't result in any lasting damage to the child - indeed twinning could occur - either by nature or manufacture. Of late, Catholic theologians have been making the unfounded claim that at this time God adds a soul. Poppycock! During this time period before gastrulation, hybids with a non-human parent develop in exactly the same way as fully human blastocysts. Unless you infer that the non-human hybrid has a soul, you cannot infer that the human blastocyst does as well. Science has also shown that the maternal DNA controls developoment at this stage - that development based on both parents does not occur until gastrulation.

At gastrulation, something is different. Development comes from the genes of both parents and seems to have a different motivating force, which could be called a soul.

As to the question of the Bishops and abortion - if they have a position on outlawing abortion, it is incumbent upon them to produce legislation that deals with the issues of criminality, malpractice if the fetus dies and enforcement, including the onerous power to investigate miscarriages (without which your abortion law contains an exception planned parenthood could drive a truck through). Until the bishops man up and produce a bill, they cannot deny anyone Communion for opposing something that does not exist.