[Buddha-l] This pope,

[Stanley J. Ziobro II]

On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Stephen Hodge wrote:

> Dear Stanley,
>
> You wrote:
> > Is the implication you draw here the stated Catholic position or is it
> > your conclusion?  It seems to me that the Catholic emphasis upon human
> > life beginning at conception leaves no room for the position you offer.
> > Have you references that would be of use for further inquiry?
>
> However, if you had read my msg attentively, you would have understood that
> I was highlighting an obvious theological conundrum for the Vatican which
> conflicts with the current Catholic position, which has already been noted
> by some within the Catholic hierarchy: if the soul is indivisble and unique,
> what is the status of a monozygote that becomes twins etc during the approx
> 14 days before it splits ?

Stephen, my question was the result of having read your message carefully.
It's an interesting question and I'm glad you raised it.

>  Before it splits, the monozygote is potentially
> just one individual so can only have one soul, so where does the extra soul
> come from and which sibling keeps the original soul ?   Thus, as I
> mentioned, there are some in the Vatican who see a need to re-examine the
> matter carefully in the light of such recent embryological research -- I
> don't have the reference to hand as I came across that item while scanning
> through a lot of other material, but as far as I can remember the comment
> came from somebody in the Vatican's department that liaises with a wide
> range of scientists for the latest findings of research in various fields.
> However, as you imply, the current position is unlikely to shift in the
> forseeable future, even though, once again, the Church's cherished beliefs
> will be at odds with scienctific fact.  That's why I characterize this as a
> theological conundrum which, as I mentioned, also has some implicications
> for some Buddhist beliefs.

If the status of the question is open, then perhaps you are concluding too
quickly that the Church's doctrine and scientific fact are at odds.  In
short, the issue may be a theological conundrum or the conundrum may be
more apparent than real.  I don't know if you are really interested in
exploring this further, but if it has some implications for some Buddhist
beliefs, then it may be of use, would you not think so?  For instance, in
the case of maternal twins (and this is the example we are discussing
since the case of paternal twins present no problems with regard to
individual souls) a single ova is fertilized by a single sperm of a single
father.  The fertilized egg, I understand, begins to develop through a process
of mitosis whereby the single embryonic cell divides into a duplicat mass of
identical cells.  Very early on (within a few hours at most) one of these
cells separates from the other and begins to develop as the twin embryo.
The DNA of these two embryos are identical and are distinguished only by
the initial developmental time differential.  Does this phenomenon really
lead to a theological conundrum?  If one supposes that the soul is some
sort of individual unique stuff which here becomes two distinct individuals,
then one might conclude that we here have an instance of one soul manifested
in two distinct personalities.  That anamoly would be a point of contention
because, in Catholic theology, the soul is the form, the individuating
principle, of the body, and there can be no instance where two bodies are
informed by a single soul.  One might posit that a different soul is
infused into the newly separated cell replacing the prior stuff with an
almost identical stuff.  But then, what became of the original stuff?  Was
it annihilated, which in effect leads to the conclusion that a soul has
parts that can be divided?
	There is another solution that respects both the Church's doctrine of
one individuating soul informing one body and the formation process observed
in the case of the generation of maternal twins.  There is nothing to my
knowledge about Catholic doctrine(s) on the soul that would prohibit the
newly fertilized ova to be initially infused with two souls.  It would be
the activity of these distinct souls that would account for the separation
into twins during the fertalized egg's initial period of mitosis.  There
is no question that the soul of one twin came from that of the other,
since they both come from God.  Also, there is no denying that human life
begins precisely at conception, not, as you surmised, 14 days afterwards.

Regards,

Stan Ziobro