Sheila wrote, in part: "Question #4: When does conception begin? Psalm
139:13 "For you [God] created my inmost being; you knit me together in my
mother's womb." We do not have the ability to decide when life begins or
when the soul exists but God does. Until God chooses to tell us that
exact moment, we must not assume and take the life."
We don't exactly know when "conception" begins (sometime in a process
lasting about 60 or 70 minutes). Perhaps the question is better phrased:
"When does personhood begin?" For dualists, "When is the soul infused
into the mass of cells being formed?"
Since God clearly is not going to tell us that exact moment, we must
puzzle it out for ourselves.
On the principle of "do the least harm to the newly formed life," it
seems we must assume the earliest possible time -- sometime in the
conception process. There are scientific arguments, however, and these
have been explored before, that would argue for the time when womb
implantation is completed. Taking both science and scripture seriously, I
have to argue for this position. Psalm 139:13 does not give us a way to
differentiate between these.
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com
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Received on Sat Oct 16 15:51:58 2004
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