From: Travis Shutt (TravisS@optimumnetworking.com)
Date: Mon Oct 14 2002 - 10:08:26 MDT
Got into this in a cloning, stem cell, and abortion discussion with my
Catholic parents. Mum is also in the medical field, so she's not
biologically ignorant either. She was under the assumption that you'd
be sharing a 'soul' with your clone, and was of the opinion that a
fetus gets its soul at the moment of conception, but I asked if twins
share a single soul. She said no, she didn't think so. I then asked if
a fetus split in two immediately after conception to produce twins, or
if it split x many cell divisions down the road from conception. She
said it happens later, not until some number of cell divisions occur.
So I concluded that twins (and therefore the rest of us) couldn't get
their souls till at least x many cell divisions after conception. She
couldn't dispute this conclusion at all. I then said that this also
means that if stem cells are harvested prior to this x many cell
division point, then there would be no danger of souls getting in the
way of this operation. She agreed. I then said that if a fetus was
aborted prior to this x many cell divisions, then such an abortion
would not be murder.
This, I think, is the point at which pro-lifers, pro-choicers,
pro-cloners, and pro-stem cell researchers can share common ground.
Re: I wonder if it is possible for twins to share a soul at one point in
time. If so maybe it would explain some of the phenomena, or maybe there
brains just function on the same wave length.
- Travis
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