by Hal Eaton » Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:51 pm
I found no mention in the forum of this latest Missouri law regarding abortion. Among the requirements:
Largely based on other states’ legislation that has withstood court challenges, the new Missouri law requires the state to develop, and the abortionist to distribute, materials that
". . . describe the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics of the unborn child at two-week gestational increments from conception to full term, including color photographs or images of the developing unborn child at two-week gestational increments. Such descriptions shall include information about brain and heart functions, the presence of external members and internal organs during the applicable stages of development and information on when the unborn child is viable. The printed materials shall prominently display the following statement: 'The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.'”
So the legislators have finally given us certainty concerning a problem that has bedeviled scientists, philosophers, moralists, religionists, and ethicists for centuries. It is obvious that Roman Catholic input has figured mightily in the wording of the law . . .
Fundamental to the circumstance is the rather simplistic question: What is a soul, and "ensoulment"?
We have unflinchingly used the word all our lives. Do you have a good definition, or description, or delineation, or characterization of what constitutes a "soul"? And does the process of acquiring a soul, at whatever stage of life, support the idea of law-makers deciding for us all, with attendant criminal classifications, just when this supposedly hallowed (by God) transformation take place?
What say you? And You? And YOU?
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. -- Thomas Paine