A Theologians' Brief On the place of the human embryo within the Christian tradition


References:

1 Hansard Vol.62 1, No.16, col.35.37. [Back]

2 In its 'Call for Evidence'. [Back]

3 Cf. G. R. Dunstan 'The Human Embryo in the Western Moral Tradition' in G.R. Dunstan and M.J. Sellers The Status of the Human Embryo London: King Edward's Hospital Fund, 1988, p. 55. [Back]

4 Commentary on the Sentences book IV, d. 31 exp. text. [Back]

5 Didache 2.2; Epistle of Barnabas 19.5. [Back]

6 See also Apocalypse of Peter 2.26; St Clement of Alexandria Teacher II.10.96; Athenagoras Legatio 35; Municius Felix Octavius 30.2; Tertullian Apology 9.4-8; Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies 9.7. [Back]

7 St Clement Prophetic Eclogues 41, 48-49, cf. M.J. Gorman Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish & Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World Dovers Grove Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1982, p. 52; Tertullian On the Soul 27. 'Now we allow that life begins with conception, because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does.' [Back]

8 'Some Current Ethical Issues Concerning the Treatment of the Pre-Implantation Human Embryo', a briefing paper prepared by the General Synod Board for Social Responsibility; cf. G. Bonner, 'Abortion and Early Christian Thought' in J.H. Channer ed. Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life, Exeter: The Paternoster Press, 1985; M.J. Gorman; L. Crutchfield 'The Early Church Fathers and Abortion' at http://www.all.org/issues/ab99x.htm. [Back]

9 Elvira (305 CE ) canons 53, 65; Ancyra (314 CE ) 21; Lerida (524 CE ) 2; Braga (527 CE ) 77; Trullo (692 CE ) 91; Mainz (847 CE ) 21; cf. S. Troianos 'The Embryo in Byzantine Canon Law'. [Back]

10 Basil Epistle 118.2. [Back]

11 St Gregory of Nyssa On the Making of Man 29; cf. St Maximus the Confessor II Ambigua 42. [Back]

12 Lactantius De Opificio Dei 12; Ambrosiaster QQ Veteris et Novi Testamenti 23. [Back]

13 On the History of Animals VII.3, 4:583. [Back]

14 St Jerome On Ecclesiastes 2.5; Apologia adversus Rufinum 2.8; St Augustine Enchiridion 85, On Exodus 2.80; though each of these sometimes state that the foetus is not a man (homo) until he is fully formed. [Back]

15 St Augustine On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.15; St Ambrose Hexameron 5.18; St Jerome Epistle 22, 13; St John Chrysostom Homily 24 on the Epistle to the Romans; Caesarius of Arles Sermons 9, 91. [Back]

16 J. Connery Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective, Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1977, p. 306, cf. G. Grisez, Abortion: the Myths the Realities and the Arguments, New York: Corpus Books, 1970; J.T. Noonan 'An Almost Absolute Value in History' in J.T. Noonan ed. The Morality of Abortion: Legal and Historical Perspectives Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. [Back]

17 Bull of 1591, Sedes Apostolica cf. Connery p. 148; Grisez pp. 167-168; Noonan p. 33. [Back]

18 Connery pp.114-134; Grisez pp. 166-168; Noonan pp. 26-27. [Back]

19 Connery pp. 134-141; Grisez pp. 168-169; Noonan pp. 27-31. [Back]

20 Denzinger-Schoenmetzer Enchiridion Symbolorum Rome: Herder, 1965, 2134-2135 cf. Connery p. 189; Grisez p. 174; Noonan p. 34. [Back]

21 Theologia Moralis III, 4.1, n. 394. [Back]

22 Theologia Moralis VI, 1.1, dubia 4, n. 124 cf. Connery p. 210; Grisez p. 176; Noonan p. 31. [Back]

23 The theory developed by Fienus (1567-1631), Zacchia (1584-1659) and Cangiamila (1701-1763) cf. Connery ch. 10-11; Grisez pp. 170-172; Noonan pp. 34-40. [Back]

24 This has also become the prevailing opinion among followers of St Thomas Aquinas, cf. B. Ashley 'A Critique of the Theory of Delayed Hominization' in D. McCarthy and A. Moraczewski Evaluation of Fetal Experimentation: An Interdisciplinary Study St Louis: Pope John Center, 1976; B. Ashley and A. Moraczewski 'Cloning, Aquinas, and the Embryonic Person' The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 1 (2000), 189-201; S. Heaney, 'Aquinas and the Presence of the Human Rational Soul in the Early Embryo' The Thomist 56, (1992) 1; M. Johnston 'Delayed Hominization' Theological Studies 56 (1995); R. Joyce 'The Human Zygote Is a Person' The New Scholasticism 51 (1975). [Back]

25 Second Vatican Council Gaudium et Spes 51. [Back]

26 Lambeth Conference 1958 report 'The Family in Contemporary Society' in What the Bishops Have Said about Marriage London: SPCK, 1968, p. 17. [Back]

27 'The Church has always held in regard to the morality of abortion that it is a serious sin to destroy a fetus at any stage of development. However, as a juridical norm in the determination of penalties against abortion, the Church at various times did accept the distinction between a formed and a non-formed, an animated and a nonanimated fetus.' R. J. Huser The Crime of Abortion in Canon Law Washington D.C.: Catholic Univ. Press, 1942, preliminary note. [Back]

28 An ill-tempered but perceptive critique of some recent attempts to reread the Christian tradition on abortion as 'relatively tolerant' to abortion of an unformed foetus is D. DeMarco 'The Roman Catholic Church and Abortion: An Historical Perspective' in Homiletic & Pastoral Review July 1984, 59-66 and August-September, 68-76; cf. http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?RecNum=3362 [Back]

29 Lambeth Conference 1958 report 'The Family in Contemporary Society' in What the Bishops Have Said about Marriage London: SPCK, 1968, p. 17. [Back]

30 Creed of Nicaea, N. Tanner Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils London: Sheed & Ward, 1990, I. p. 5. [Back]

31 Gregory of Nyssa On the Making of Man; John Damascene Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.12; Creed of Lateran IV, Tanner p. 230. [Back]

32 Job 10.8-12, Ecclesiastes 11.5, Ezekiel 37.7-10, (cf. Wisdom 7.1, 15.10-11). [Back]

33 Psalm 139.15. [Back]

34 Psalm 139.15, Ecclesiastes 11.5. [Back]

35 II Maccabees 7.22-23. [Back]

36 Genesis 1.26-28; 2.7; 2.19-20. [Back]

37 Genesis 3.19. [Back]

38 Daniel 12.2-3; cf. Ezekiel 37.1-14; John 11.24. [Back]

39 Job 10.21-22; Psalms 6.5, 88.10, 115.17; Ecclesiastes 9.3-6 cf. Homer Odyssey XI. 485-491. [Back]

40 Isaiah 26.19; Hosea 13.14; (cf. II Maccabees 7.9-14). [Back]

41 John 11.1-44. [Back]

42 Ignatius of Antioch Smyrneans 3 cf. Luke 24:13-51; John 20.19-29. [Back]

43 John Damascene, Peter Lombard, St Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae Ia Q. 118 art.2-3; Pius XII Humani Generis. [Back]

44 Council of Vienne, On the Catholic Faith, Tanner p. 361. [Back]

45 The debate about the timing of the 'infusion of the soul' was a debate about when the living human body came into existence. [Back]

46 Isaiah 49.1. [Back]

47

Je remiah 1.5. [Back]

48 Psalm 22.10-11; Psalm 71.6; Job 10.8-12. [Back]

49 Psalm 139. [Back]

50 Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 22. [Back]

51 J. Saward The Redeemer in the Womb San Fransisco: Ignatius, 1993, ch. 3. [Back]

52 Epistle of St Cyril to John of Antioch, Tanner p. 70. [Back]

53 II Ambigua 42. [Back]

54 Hebrews 4.15. [Back]

55 Cf. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae IIIa Q.6 art 4. [Back]

56 Sermon IX on the Nativity in J. Saward, p. 100. [Back]

57 Psalm 51.5. [Back]

58 Romans 5.12-21. [Back]

59 For example, 'The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception' Pope John Paul II Evangelium Vitae 60, emphasis added. [Back]

60 Ibid. [Back]

61 Cf. O. O'Donovan Begotten or made? Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984, ch. 4. [Back]

62 Athenagoras Legatio 35. [Back]

63 Matthew 25.40. [Back]

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