Ensoulment
Encyclopedia
Ensoulment, in theology, refers to the moment at which a human
being gains a soul
, whether newly created within a developing fetus or pre-existing
and added at a particular stage of development.
The exact gestation
al age at which ensoulment is believed to happen has been debated: a widely held view, dating from at latest the time of Aristotle, was that the human soul entered the forming body at 40 days (male embryos) or 90 days (female embryos), and quickening
was also named an indication of the presence of a soul.
Other views are that ensoulment happens at the moment of conception; when the child takes the first breath after being born ; at the formation of the nervous system and brain; at the first brain activity; or when the fetus is able to survive independently of the uterus (viability).
(384 – 322 BC) believed a fetus in early gestation has the soul
of a vegetable, then of an animal, and only later became "animated" with a human soul by "ensoulment". For him, ensoulment occurred 40 days after conception for male fetuses and 90 days after conception for female fetuses, the stage at which, it was held, movement is first felt within the womb and pregnancy was certain. This is called epigenesis
, which is "the theory that the germ is brought into existence (by successive accretions), and not merely developed, in the process of reproduction," in contrast to theory of preformation
, which asserts the "supposed existence of all the parts of an organism in rudimentary form in the egg or the seed;" modern embryology
holds this latter view.
Stoicism
maintained that the living animal soul was received only at birth, through contact with the outer air, and was transformed into a rational soul only at fourteen years of age.
Epicureanism
saw the origin of the soul (considered to consist of only a small number of atoms even in adults) as simultaneous with conception.
Pythagoreanism
also considered ensoulment to occur at conception.
spoke that
In relation to elective abortion
, Pope John Paul II
wrote about ensoulment in his 1995 encyclical
letter Evangelium Vitae
that:
While the Church has always condemned abortion, changing beliefs about the moment the embryo gains a human soul have led their stated reasons for such condemnation, and the classification in canon law of the sin of abortion, to change over time.
Aristotle's epigenetic
view of successive life principles ("souls") in a developing human embryo—first a vegetative and then a sensitive or animal soul, and finally an intellective or human soul, with the higher levels able to carry out the functions also of the lower levels—was the prevailing view among early Christians, including Tertullian
, Augustine, and Jerome
. Lars Østnor says this view was only "presaged" by Augustine
, who belongs to a period later than that of early Christianity
. According to David Albert Jones, this distinction appeared among Christian writers only in the late fourth and early fifth century, while the earlier writers made no distinction between formed and unformed, a distinction that Saint Basil of Caesarea
explicitly rejected. While the Hebrew text of the Bible only required a fine for the loss of a fetus, whatever its stage of development, the Greek
Septuagint (LXX) translation of the Hebrew text, a pre-Christian translation that the early Christians used, introduced a distinction between a formed and an unformed fetus and treated destruction of the former as murder. It has been commented that "the LXX could easily have been used to distinguish human from non-human fetuses and homicidal from non-homicidal abortions, yet the early Christians, until the time of Augustine in the fifth century, did not do so."
The view of early Christians on the moment of ensoulment is also said to have been not the Aristotelian, but the Pythagorean
:
Through the Latin translations of Averroes
's (1126 – 1198) work beginning in the 12th century the legacy of Aristotle
was recovered in the West - Christian philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas
(1224 - 1274) adapted to his view, and because they believed that the early embryo did not have a human soul, they did not necessarily see early abortion as murder, though they condemned abortion.
The 1312 Council of Vienne
declared that the substance of the rational or intellectual soul is of itself and essentially the form of the human body and affirmed Aquinas's stance on delayed hominization.
In 1588, Pope Sixtus V
issued the Bull Effraenatam, which subjected those that carried out abortions at any stage of gestation with automatic excommunication and the punishment by civil authorities applied to murderers; but a mere three years later, finding that the results had not been as positive as was hoped, his successor Pope Gregory XIV
limited the excommunication to abortion of a formed fetus.
In 1679, Pope Innocent XI
publicly condemned sixty-five propositions taken chiefly from the writings of Escobar
, Suarez
and other casuists
(mostly Jesuit
casuists, who had been heavily attacked by Pascal
in his Provincial Letters
) as propositiones laxorum moralistarum (propositions of lax moralists) and "at least scandalous and in practice dangerous," and forbade anyone to teach them under penalty of excommunication. The propositions included:
In the 1869 Bull Apostolicae Sedis, Pius IX rescinded Gregory XIV's not-yet-animated fetus exception and re-enacted the penalty of excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy, which even before that were never seen as merely venial sin
s. Since then, canon law
makes no distinction as regards excommunication between stages of pregnancy at which abortion is performed.
In spite of the difference in ecclesiastical penalties imposed during the period when the theory of delayed ensoulment was accepted as scientific truth, abortion at any stage has always been condemned by the Church and continues to be so. However, in its official declarations, the Catholic Church avoids taking a position on the philosophical question of the moment when a human person begins to be:
Citing the possibly first-century Didache
and the Letter of Barnabas of about the same period, the Epistle to Diognetus
and Tertullian
, the Catholic Church declares that "since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law."
Even when the prevailing scientific theory considered that early abortion was the killing of what was not yet a human being, the condemnation of abortion at any stage was sometimes expressed in the form of making it equivalent to homicide. Accordingly, the article on abortion in the Catholic Encyclopedia
states:
process:
Traditional scholarship places the point of ensoulment nearer to the end of this process, naming it as anywhere between 40 and 120 days after conception, making abortion
permissible until that point, though increasingly disliked as time passed.
Tangentially, the first verses revealed to Muhammad (Qur. 96:1-5) state that God "created man from a clinging form," "clinging form" often translated as "embryo."
Contemporary scholarship, however, is more likely to more strongly restrict or even forbid abortion, on the grounds that modern technology has permitted us to perceive life in the womb earlier than was previously possible. All schools of thought, traditional and modern, make allowances for circumstances threatening the health or life of the mother.
Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
in a lecture stated that it was murder if done after three months and before that it was a crime, but not to the degree of murder.
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
being gains a soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
, whether newly created within a developing fetus or pre-existing
Pre-existence
Pre-existence , beforelife, or pre-mortal existence refers to the belief that each individual human soul existed before conception, and at conception one of these pre-existent souls enters, or is placed by God, in the body...
and added at a particular stage of development.
The exact gestation
Gestation
Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time ....
al age at which ensoulment is believed to happen has been debated: a widely held view, dating from at latest the time of Aristotle, was that the human soul entered the forming body at 40 days (male embryos) or 90 days (female embryos), and quickening
Quickening
Quickening is the earliest perception of fetal movement by a mother during pregnancy Quickening may also refer to:* Quickening , Final Fantasy XIIs incarnation of "Limit Breaks"...
was also named an indication of the presence of a soul.
Other views are that ensoulment happens at the moment of conception; when the child takes the first breath after being born ; at the formation of the nervous system and brain; at the first brain activity; or when the fetus is able to survive independently of the uterus (viability).
Ancient Greeks
Among Greek scholars, AristotleAristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
(384 – 322 BC) believed a fetus in early gestation has the soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
of a vegetable, then of an animal, and only later became "animated" with a human soul by "ensoulment". For him, ensoulment occurred 40 days after conception for male fetuses and 90 days after conception for female fetuses, the stage at which, it was held, movement is first felt within the womb and pregnancy was certain. This is called epigenesis
Epigenesis (biology)
In biology, epigenesis has at least two distinct meanings:* the unfolding development in an organism, and in particular the development of a plant or animal from an egg or spore through a sequence of steps in which cells differentiate and organs form;...
, which is "the theory that the germ is brought into existence (by successive accretions), and not merely developed, in the process of reproduction," in contrast to theory of preformation
Preformationism
In the history of biology, preformationism is either the specific contention that all organisms were created at the same time, and that succeeding generations grow from homunculi, animalcules, or other fully formed but miniature versions of themselves that have existed since the beginning of...
, which asserts the "supposed existence of all the parts of an organism in rudimentary form in the egg or the seed;" modern embryology
Embryology
Embryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...
holds this latter view.
Stoicism
Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...
maintained that the living animal soul was received only at birth, through contact with the outer air, and was transformed into a rational soul only at fourteen years of age.
Epicureanism
Epicureanism
Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom...
saw the origin of the soul (considered to consist of only a small number of atoms even in adults) as simultaneous with conception.
Pythagoreanism
Pythagoreanism
Pythagoreanism was the system of esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were considerably influenced by mathematics. Pythagoreanism originated in the 5th century BCE and greatly influenced Platonism...
also considered ensoulment to occur at conception.
Catholic Church
On 27 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
spoke that
“from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care.” [...] With regard to the embryo in the mother's womb, science itself highlights its autonomy, its capacity for interaction with the mother, the coordination of biological processes, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of the organism.
It is not an accumulation of biological material but rather of a new living being, dynamic and marvelously ordered, a new individual of the human species. This is what JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
was in MaryMary (mother of Jesus)Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
’s womb; this is what we all were in our mother’s womb. We may say with TertullianTertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, an ancient Christian writer: “the one who will be a man is one already” (Apologeticum IX, 8), there is no reason not to consider him a person from conception.
In relation to elective abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
wrote about ensoulment in his 1995 encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
letter Evangelium Vitae
Evangelium Vitae
Evangelium Vitae is the name of the encyclical written by Pope John Paul II which expresses the position of the Catholic Church regarding the value and inviolability of human life...
that:
Throughout Christianity's two thousand year history, this same doctrine of condemning all direct abortionsAbortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
has been constantly taught by the Fathers of the Church and by her Pastors and Doctors. Even scientific and philosophical discussions about the precise moment of the infusion of the spiritual soul have never given rise to any hesitation about the moral condemnation of abortionAbortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
.
While the Church has always condemned abortion, changing beliefs about the moment the embryo gains a human soul have led their stated reasons for such condemnation, and the classification in canon law of the sin of abortion, to change over time.
Historical Development
From the 12th century, when the West first came to know of Aristotle more than his works on logic, mediaeval declarations by Popes and theologians on ensoulment were based on the Aristotelian hypothesis.Aristotle's epigenetic
Epigenesis (biology)
In biology, epigenesis has at least two distinct meanings:* the unfolding development in an organism, and in particular the development of a plant or animal from an egg or spore through a sequence of steps in which cells differentiate and organs form;...
view of successive life principles ("souls") in a developing human embryo—first a vegetative and then a sensitive or animal soul, and finally an intellective or human soul, with the higher levels able to carry out the functions also of the lower levels—was the prevailing view among early Christians, including Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, Augustine, and Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
. Lars Østnor says this view was only "presaged" by Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, who belongs to a period later than that of early Christianity
Early Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
. According to David Albert Jones, this distinction appeared among Christian writers only in the late fourth and early fifth century, while the earlier writers made no distinction between formed and unformed, a distinction that Saint Basil of Caesarea
Basil of Caesarea
Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, was the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor . He was an influential 4th century Christian theologian...
explicitly rejected. While the Hebrew text of the Bible only required a fine for the loss of a fetus, whatever its stage of development, the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Septuagint (LXX) translation of the Hebrew text, a pre-Christian translation that the early Christians used, introduced a distinction between a formed and an unformed fetus and treated destruction of the former as murder. It has been commented that "the LXX could easily have been used to distinguish human from non-human fetuses and homicidal from non-homicidal abortions, yet the early Christians, until the time of Augustine in the fifth century, did not do so."
The view of early Christians on the moment of ensoulment is also said to have been not the Aristotelian, but the Pythagorean
Pythagoreanism
Pythagoreanism was the system of esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were considerably influenced by mathematics. Pythagoreanism originated in the 5th century BCE and greatly influenced Platonism...
:
Through the Latin translations of Averroes
Averroes
' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...
's (1126 – 1198) work beginning in the 12th century the legacy of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
was recovered in the West - Christian philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
(1224 - 1274) adapted to his view, and because they believed that the early embryo did not have a human soul, they did not necessarily see early abortion as murder, though they condemned abortion.
The 1312 Council of Vienne
Council of Vienne
The Council of Vienne was the fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne. Its principal act was to withdraw papal support for the Knights Templar on the instigation of Philip IV of France.-Background:...
declared that the substance of the rational or intellectual soul is of itself and essentially the form of the human body and affirmed Aquinas's stance on delayed hominization.
In 1588, Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V , born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590.-Early life:The chronicler Andrija Zmajević states that Felice's family originated from modern-day Montenegro...
issued the Bull Effraenatam, which subjected those that carried out abortions at any stage of gestation with automatic excommunication and the punishment by civil authorities applied to murderers; but a mere three years later, finding that the results had not been as positive as was hoped, his successor Pope Gregory XIV
Pope Gregory XIV
Pope Gregory XIV , born Niccolò Sfondrati, was Pope from 5 December 1590 until his death in 1591.- Early career :...
limited the excommunication to abortion of a formed fetus.
In 1679, Pope Innocent XI
Pope Innocent XI
Blessed Pope Innocent XI , born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope from 1676 to 1689.-Early life:Benedetto Odescalchi was born at Como in 1611 , the son of a Como nobleman, Livio Odescalchi, and Paola Castelli Giovanelli from Gandino...
publicly condemned sixty-five propositions taken chiefly from the writings of Escobar
Antonio Escobar
Antonio Escobar Núñez is an award-winning Spanish music producer, sound designer and composer, for advertising, film, TV and recording artistes, whose music features rock, electronica, pop, dance, Latin and orchestral influences.-Biography:...
, Suarez
Francisco Suárez
Francisco Suárez was a Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian, one of the leading figures of the School of Salamanca movement, and generally regarded among the greatest scholastics after Thomas Aquinas....
and other casuists
Casuistry
In applied ethics, casuistry is case-based reasoning. Casuistry is used in juridical and ethical discussions of law and ethics, and often is a critique of principle- or rule-based reasoning...
(mostly Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
casuists, who had been heavily attacked by Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
in his Provincial Letters
Lettres provinciales
The Lettres provinciales are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte...
) as propositiones laxorum moralistarum (propositions of lax moralists) and "at least scandalous and in practice dangerous," and forbade anyone to teach them under penalty of excommunication. The propositions included:
In the 1869 Bull Apostolicae Sedis, Pius IX rescinded Gregory XIV's not-yet-animated fetus exception and re-enacted the penalty of excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy, which even before that were never seen as merely venial sin
Venial sin
According to Roman Catholicism, a venial sin is a lesser sin that does not result in a complete separation from God and eternal damnation in Hell...
s. Since then, canon law
Canon law (Catholic Church)
The canon law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. It lacks the necessary binding force present in most modern day legal systems. The academic...
makes no distinction as regards excommunication between stages of pregnancy at which abortion is performed.
In spite of the difference in ecclesiastical penalties imposed during the period when the theory of delayed ensoulment was accepted as scientific truth, abortion at any stage has always been condemned by the Church and continues to be so. However, in its official declarations, the Catholic Church avoids taking a position on the philosophical question of the moment when a human person begins to be:
Citing the possibly first-century Didache
Didache
The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century...
and the Letter of Barnabas of about the same period, the Epistle to Diognetus
Epistle to Diognetus
The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus is probably the earliest example of Christian apologetics, writings defending Christianity from its accusers...
and Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, the Catholic Church declares that "since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law."
Even when the prevailing scientific theory considered that early abortion was the killing of what was not yet a human being, the condemnation of abortion at any stage was sometimes expressed in the form of making it equivalent to homicide. Accordingly, the article on abortion in the Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
states:
The early Christians are the first on record as having pronounced abortion to be the murder of human beings, for their public apologists, AthenagorasAthenagorasAthenagoras has been the name of several notable Greek individuals:*Athenagoras of Ephesus, a tyrant of Ephesus around the 6th century BC*Athenagoras of Syracuse, statesman and military leader in Syracuse during the Sicilian Expedition, 415 BC to 413 BC...
, TertullianTertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, and Minutius Felix (Eschbach, "Disp. Phys.", Disp. iii), to refute the slander that a child was slain, and its flesh eaten, by the guests at the AgapæAgape feastThe term Agape or Love feast was used of certain religious meals among early Christians that seem originally to have been closely related to the Eucharist...
, appealed to their laws as forbidding all manner of murder, even that of children in the womb. The Fathers of the Church unanimously maintained the same doctrine. In the fourth century the Council of Eliberis decreed that Holy Communion should be refused all the rest of her life, even on her deathbed, to an adulteress who had procured the abortion of her child. The Sixth Ecumenical Council determined for the whole Church that anyone who procured abortion should bear all the punishments inflicted on murderers. In all these teachings and enactments no distinction is made between the earlier and the later stages of gestation. For, though the opinion of Aristotle, or similar speculations, regarding the time when the rational soul is infused into the embryo, were practically accepted for many centuries still it was always held by the Church that he who destroyed what was to be a man was guilty of destroying a human life.
Islam
Islam does not traditionally hold that ensoulment occurs at the point of conception. Two passages in the Qur'an describe the fetal developmentFetal development
Prenatal or antenatal development is the process in which a human embryo or fetus gestates during pregnancy, from fertilization until birth. Often, the terms fetal development, foetal development, or embryology are used in a similar sense.After fertilization the embryogenesis starts...
process:
Traditional scholarship places the point of ensoulment nearer to the end of this process, naming it as anywhere between 40 and 120 days after conception, making abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
permissible until that point, though increasingly disliked as time passed.
Tangentially, the first verses revealed to Muhammad (Qur. 96:1-5) state that God "created man from a clinging form," "clinging form" often translated as "embryo."
Contemporary scholarship, however, is more likely to more strongly restrict or even forbid abortion, on the grounds that modern technology has permitted us to perceive life in the womb earlier than was previously possible. All schools of thought, traditional and modern, make allowances for circumstances threatening the health or life of the mother.
Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari is a public speaker and author of Islamic books and translator of several Arabic works to the English language.- Early Life and Education :...
in a lecture stated that it was murder if done after three months and before that it was a crime, but not to the degree of murder.