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To: Pyro7480

She has no idea of where she is going. The Church has not defined when ensoulment takes place. (See Declaration on Procured Abortion, footnote on page 4), but that is not the same as saying there is no human life. St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Plato and Aristotle would describe the life as having a human animal soul. The “quickening” part was an understanding of the science/philosphy at the time of when the RATIONAL soul develops and has no pertinence to the question at hand anyway. (In her case, you could argue the rational soul still hasn’t developed.) Most abortions occur after quickening, and Roe allows abortion for all nine months.

When St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas suggest not having a civil penalty for an early abortion, that might be related to the fact that miscariages often happen early on with no intent, and there’d be no way to sort the whole thing out.


4 posted on 08/26/2008 7:12:40 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: Dr. Sivana

In Luke 1, shortly after the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and she agrees to be the mother of Jesus, she visits her kinswoman Elizabeth. When Elizabeth greets Mary, she says “blessed is the fruit of your womb” and calls her “the mother of my Lord.” Luke must have assumed that ensoulment took place at conception—the visit to Elizabeth seems to have taken place immediately after the annunciation (since Elizabeth was in her 6th month, and Mary stays with her about 3 months but leaves before the birth of John the Baptist).


10 posted on 08/26/2008 7:39:29 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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