What happens to the soul of an aborted baby?

Question

Really, honestly serious question. Try to answer without getting into whether you think abortion should be legal or not. That's not what I'm asking and it's been argued to death here and everywhere else. Does an embryo have a soul? A fetus? Why or why not? If yes, what happens to the soul if the pregnancy is terminated? Does the Catholic Church, or any other church for that matter, have an official position on this?

Answer 1

The questionbegins with the nature of the fetal soul, and where it comes from. There are distinctly different views on this depending on whether or not you believe in reincarnation. If you do, then the soul comes from the karmic cycle. if you don't, then the question is quit a bit more complex and confused.

Many who don't believe in reincarnation also don't believe that animals have souls. So the answer would seem to be that a person acquires a soul when they have the characteristics which distinguish humans from animals. This is most likely a neurological issue. At birth, a child's brain is relatively undeveloped. This is a biological necessity. If the brain were developed, then the head wouldn't fit through the opening. So from a neurological point of view, a child does not meet the requirements of being human whilst still in the womb.

The brain continues growing for about a year to get all the basic parts in place, so the earliest that someone could be considered to be human would be somewhere in that time. The brain continues developing until about the age of 25. so there can be no doubt that after the age of 25, we are basically (barring the occurrence of self actualization) as human as we're going to get. Then after the age of 55 or so, the brain starts to get a bit mushy, and it could be said that some people lose a bit of what it is which makes us human. But most likely the soul (in the model of no reincarnation and only humans have souls) would therefore be fully in the body sometime in a person's youth.

The bible seems to support this view since the bible makes no reference to abortion or infanticide. In fact the closest thing to a reference is in Exodus 21:22 to the punishment if a man does violence to a pregnant woman causing her to lose the child, which is different from the punishment for murder as described in Exodus 21:12, which clearly indicates that the basis for popular religious thought for the Judeo-Christian-Muslim traditions did not intend for the killing of a fetus to be regarded as murder.

However, if a person believes that all living things have a spirit, then a person has a spirit at the moment that it could be said to be life

As for what happens to the fetal soul, if you believe that only humans have souls, then the fetus doesn't have one because it's not yet human. It has the potential to become human, but it's not there yet. If you believe that all creatures have souls, then it goes to wherever souls go. If you believe in Karma, then that life served a purpose which it was there to do and can karmically celebrate that it's life accomplished what it was destined to accomplish

Answer 2

I'm going to answer your questions one by one to the best of my ability.
#1. Does an embryo have a soul? Answer: Webster Dictionary meaning says: an animal in the earliest stages of it development in the uterus or egg. The developing human individual from the time of implantation to the end of the eighth week after conception.
#2. An unborn or unhatched vertebrate especially after attaining the basic structural plan of it's kind.
#3. Why or Why not? Well, in my opinion I would think the logical answer would be Yes.
Yes, an embryo and a fetus would have a soul.
I would have to say an innocent soul, unblemished and pure soul.
#4. What happens to the soul if the pregnancy is terminated? To be honest, I really don't know. I could give you all the quotation in the Bible and still wouldn't really know exactly where their little souls would go. I've been told that everyone that dies under any circumstances will sleep until Jesus Christ comes back and all the died shall rise and be judged. And it would be obvious to me that eve n their precious little souls are just sleeping right now.
#5. Does the Churches have an official position on this matter? I'm going to answer this question with a question: What official position do you expect the church to have on this matter? Again, in my opinion none I hope. The only opinion official postion I'm concern about is
J E S U S C H R I S T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

I am a Mormon. We teach that life is a precious gift from the Lord
I believe every embryo has a soul, once life is created, it is a life, no matter how small or long it has been living. I believe their spirits are saved for the millenium where they will be raised by loving, righteous parents. This is our church's position on the matter:
"Church leaders have said that some exceptional circumstances may justify an abortion, such as when pregnancy is the result of incest or rape, when the life or health of the mother is judged by competent medical authority to be in serious jeopardy, or when the fetus is known by competent medical authority to have severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. But even these circumstances do not automatically justify an abortion. Those who face such circumstances should consider abortion only after consulting with their local Church leaders and receiving a confirmation through earnest prayer."
True to the Faith booklet

Answer 4

An embryo, a fetus, a baby,flesh and blood, when is it human?
Most parents are in love with what ever you call it from the time they learn there is something growing inside the mother,which could only be a couple of weeks.
Does it have a soul? Perhaps. Does it not have that spark of life we all loose in the end? The combination of 2 microscopic cells that finally become a president, teacher, brother,sister, homeless person or drug addict. A human of such complexity and venerability that a vicious microscopic cell can invade and kill as well as a bullet or a car.
That spark or soul will leave that flesh and blood to return to dust from which we also received our nourishment to survive as long as we can.
We make excuses to allow us to terminate that spark of life so we don't have to be responsible for it if it isn't "born".
If those "cells" that have that all important spark of life can't, for some reason, mature, then that awesome force is gone never to be duplicated again.We are all unique, we all have a potential for something, good or bad, we just need a chance to make that spark last as long as we can. Many don't even get the chance to breath. What a shame that is.

Answer 5

I'll give you the Catholic Church's position on this:
Yes, from the point of conception the fetus has a soul. If the pregnancy is terminated, the soul goes to limbo, which is essentially the same thing as enternal comfort. Not heaven, because the baby never had a chance to be baptized to achieve salvation. The way it was explained to me was being in its mother's arms eternally.

The idea of limbo came about because they needed an explanation for where the soul could go, because it certainly did not deserve being in hell. There is every possibility that the soul goes to heaven, but we have no way of knowing for sure.

Answer 6

Aborted babies at any stage, beginning at conception, have a soul. The soul and the fetus, embryo, etc go straight to heaven. They do not go to Purgatory or Limbo as another poster suggested.

I am Catholic. The Church does have an official position. I can check the Cathecism book for you a little later.

Answer 7

I believe it goes to heaven, which is a far cry better than being born on this crappy planet the way things have been going! I'm not sure how the catholic church stands on this. My old church was against it. It is not their choice what anyone does though, it is the choice of the mother. God will forgive if it is a sin, but I don't know if it is. I DO know that there are very near the same ammount of people who are waiting to adopt a baby, as their are babies being aborted. I wonder why...

Answer 8

Back in the Lord hands in Heaven. I'm a catholic and i'm 100% contra for abortion. It's not about church, but it's all about faith and about human respect. I'm sure if u can talk to an embryo, they would never permit their soul to take away just like that.

Answer 9

God created the embryo or fetus, therefore, the soul goes to Heaven. No church should have a position on this.

Answer 10

I would say that an unborn baby goes to Heaven, the same way any child who dies before the age of understanding does. My proof comes 2 Samuel 12:21. This was a time when King David had just lost his baby, due to sin in his life. The servants wondered at why David was acting the way he was, and this was his response.

"His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!"

Here, David is saying that nothing will bring the child back. However, when King David dies, he will see his child again.