For those who support right to abortion - at what point does the fetus have a soul?

Question

At conception?
During gestation?
At birth?
And, what criteria did you use in making your decision?

Answer 1

Not everyone believes in the concept of a soul. At which point a fetus has a soul is debatable since i don't think this is covered in the bible. I believe it has it at its conception. I think it would be daft to say that it doesn't have a soul til it's actually born there is little difference between a baby a few minutes before birth and after.

Answer 2

I'm not concerned with souls.
I keep my religious views away from my political ones. I went as far as to ask two of my instructors to counsel me before I had a paper to write on human cloning (one psych, one gov/political science). I wanted to ensure I wasn't letting my personal view obstruct my judgment.

I am against abortion after 15 weeks (fourteen to be safe). this is when the brain is developed enough for thought, conscious awareness, and interpretation of the nervous system to occur.
I will say however if its for health reasons I can understand a later abortion or inducing premature labor (even if no child will result because the newborn won't live very long). I'm half/half when it comes to unhealthy pregnancies. it may be an act of mercy (I'm for euthanasia).
I know of one condition where organs don't develop and have no issue with an abortion because the brain doesn't develop, only the stem and back of the brain that controls breathing and heartbeat. there is no chance of survival if the fetus is born since it could be missing kidneys, instants, and other parts of its inside.

Answer 3

A soul is not definable, so it's not a good reference for determining what a human being is. The only hard and fast, provable way to define a human is by DNA. That is the only way to tell the difference between a man and an ape, or dog, any other animal, or another human.

Here is what science proves: your DNA does not change from the moment of conception. Your DNA defines you as a biologically unique human. DNA proves that it is not part of the mother's body because the DNA is different. The only thing that changes between conception and birth is the number of cells that make up your body.

So how do we justify murder when the only difference is the number of cells? How can we say killing a human with 3,000 cells is fine, but killing a human with 3,000,000,000 cells is murder? The DNA has not changed. You can't prove whether it has a soul or not. So how can you justify killing based on nothing but cell count?

The people that support and defend infanticide (abortion) have no science to back up their arguments. How does anybody listen to them?

Answer 4

Mazis are you kidding me lets get down to the reality of an abortion untill you've witnessed one or had some one close have an abortion then its all here say. Death is death. If you consider it cruel to cut a person up alive then thats reality. You can't draw the line of life and death we are only witnesses to one side. When you get pinched it hurts you know that. when some one else gets pinched you can make the observation that it probably hurts thats called commensence. If we are talking on a spiritual level. a soul Is created by God not mad. God has said what is we chose to ignore it. we would rather come up with are own theories of when life starts. There are realy two victums in this case the Woman and the Child. the child gets to die. the woman gets to regret it. uintill perhaps she can have convincing people to convince her that was she did was for the best.

Answer 5

"soul" is too subjective. I think that as soon as a fetus can generate a distinct, unique brain wave pattern they are a person. Subjectively, that would also indicate that enough brain matter has formed to allow a soul to inhabit the flesh.

Answer 6

You KNOW that it doesn't really matter. It is only necessary that the foetus is "inconvenient" and/or "cramps my lifestyle".

And destroying the foetus removes 2 lifetimes of decisions...for the foetus and the mom.

The best point to stop a foetus is before copulation, but that would require forethought and, UGH, a decision.

Answer 7

The fetus has a soul right away, but it can't "know" that it's being aborted, it's just a chance at a human being. I believe abortion is wrong, unless it's necessary for health reasons.. you made the choice, and now you have to deal with the consequences.. sure you have a right to doing what you want with your own body, but this isn't your body, it's the baby's.

Answer 8

I am not sure when 'ensoulment' occurs..or if I even really believe in it. As far as abortion, it should be legal only in the health of the woamn, after viability. I guess you could say, 'post viability'

Answer 9

I don't know.

That's the point. People have different ideas about it. Even some religions say it isn't at conception.

Answer 10

At birth. Its just a clump of cells before that. You cant call it a baby unless it is alive yet. Fetus are potentional life you never know what could go wrong.