Re: timeing of ensoulment and abortion

John W Burgeson (
Sun, 8 Feb 1998 15:19:49 -0700

David C. (aka bivalve) wrote:

are assuming ensoulment is the cutoff between "OK to abort" and "murder";
am not. Fertilization is the only biological cutoff I see."

We are probably at an impasse. That's OK. In your first statement above
you took a leap I had not taken, although it is a reasonable next step.

When you say "Fertilization is the cutoff," I assume you mean point C in
my scenario, "conception complete and a 1-celled zygote formed." My
problem with selection of that point is that it seems "ad hoc." Can one
"murder" an entity which does not possess a soul? That seems
unreasonable. Does the entity at point C possess a soul? That, also,
seems not to be the case. If so, why point C?


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