Letter to the Editor of the Irish Times

Sir,

I am a Catholic moral theologian, and I must protest the misrepresentation of the Catholic moral tradition in Patsy McGarry’s Tuesday, May 15th article, “When Does the Human Person Come into Being?”

It is true that some theologians in the history of the Church proposed theories of “delayed hominization,” dating ensoulment (a theological concept) or personhood (a philosophical concept) to a period well after conception. These theories were based on ignorance of modern science’s findings about the beginning of human life at conception; St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, followed Aristotle’s science in this. However, to suggest certain “supersaints” were therefore proponents of abortion and would be “excommunicated by today’s standards”distorts the context of the historic debate. The ensoulment and personhood debate often revolved around how to classify the sin of abortion. Should it be grouped with sin of using pharmakeia (Gal 5:20), toxic mixtures used as contraception, or should it be classified as homicide? The answer affected pastoral practice regarding assigning penances in the sacrament of Confession. Abortion has always been considered a grave moral evil by the Church from the beginning of the early Church through the Middle Ages and up to present day.

The Didache (1st century) states “do not use enchanted potions, do not abort a fetus or kill a child that is born.” Abortion was condemned by the Synod of Elvira (305 AD), the Synod of Ancyra (314 AD), the Council of Lerida (524 AD), the Council of Mainz (847 AD), and in canon law in 1398. St. Ambrose wrote against the practice of taking “parricidal mixtures” to “snuff out the fruit of the womb in the genital organs themselves.” St. Jerome wrote against “practicing abortion by the use of drugs,” saying this was the “murder of an unborn child.” The Irish confessional manuals of the Middle Ages proscribed lengthy penances for early and late-term abortions, and many other theologians throughout Church history condemned abortion. It was clearly condemned in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, in Casti connubi in 1930, in Vatican II’s document Gaudium et spes (par. 51), in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion, in Donum vitae in 1987, and of course, in St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical “The Gospel of Life” (Evangelium vitae).

I refer readers to Dennis di Mauro’s A Love for Life: Christianity’s Consistent Protection of the Unborn for more information and context. David Bohr’s The Catholic Moral Tradition also contains a helpful discussion of the theories of delayed hominization.

The reason that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Donum vitae did not resolve the personhood debate is because it is a side issue. The philosophical question of when personhood begins does not need to be definitively settled in order to determine the ethical question of whether destroying human life through abortion is morally permissible. Developmental stages, ensoulment, or personhood do not affect the dignity and inviolability of human life from the moment of conception.

As a female theologian, I like to highlight other female voices that inform the Catholic ethical framework. In Luke 1:40-56, Mary and Elizabeth rejoice and marvel at the gift of life in their wombs. “The Lord has done great things for me, and Holy is his name!” At the Visitation, Mary didn’t shush Elizabeth and say, “Wait! I’ve only been pregnant four or five days! According to Aristotle’s faulty and sexist biology, the child in my womb won’t become a person until 40 days after conception for a boy or 80 days for a girl. Don’t call me ‘Mother of your Lord’ for another month and a half, minimum!” We women have, as St. John Paul II said, a “special communion with the mystery of life, as it develops in the woman’s womb” (EV 99). Like Mary and Elizabeth, we know that the child is present from the beginning, irrespective of moral casuistry or speculative philosophical debates. We know that life in the womb from the beginning is sacred and inviolable. As St. John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae 5, we all are called to “respect, protect, defend life–every human life!”

Respectfully,

Dr. Sarah Bartel

Seattle, WA