When Does “Personhood” Begin? Catholic, Baptist, Islamic and Jewish Views of “Ensoulment”

My editor for “The Unborn Citizen” at Georgetown Law Journal has asked me an important question: Can I justify my view that birthright citizenship attaches to an unborn person under Alabama’s anti-abortion law and constitution, which recognize variously that life begins (a) when a heartbeat is detected at six weeks (criminal law for physicians who conduct abortions), and (b) when a person is conceived, i.e., the uniting of a sperm and egg.

His question is helpful, not hostile. Join me on this brief journey,  and share your views on FB or at mhl@illinois.edu

In the brief space I am allotted, I now state:

By declaring that life begins at six weeks, the Alabama Act blurs the distinction between birth and conception as the starting point of life. Motivated by religious values, the law appears to reflect Catholic and Protestant, and Islamic views, that posit the beginning of personhood 40 days after conception, when ensoulment is thought to occur (Jewish law is more indeterminate).

Here are my sources, albeit hardly a comprehensive survey:

Catholic & Protestant:

Catholic thought appears to be more coherently organized around the idea of ensoulment at forty days, compared to a common Protestant view that personhood begins at conception. For a view on the Catholic perspective, see John Haldane & Patrick Lee, Aquinas on Human Ensoulment, Abortion and the Value of Life, 78 Philosophy 255, at 266 (Aquinas believed that the rational soul in males were ensouled at 40 days, and at 90 days for females); John T. Noonan, Jr., Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists (1965), at 88, 91, 232 (Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX recognized that a fetus was “vivified” after forty days).

A Protestant perspective, written with a substantial body of biblical citations, is R. Lucas Stamps, The Incarnation Demands a Pro-Life Position, The Ethics & Liberty Comm. Of the Southern Baptist Conv. (Dec. 21, 2015), at  https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/the-incarnation-demands-a-pro-life-position:

And the New Testament makes it clear that this assumption of a human nature began at Christ’s conception, not at his birth. This is evident from Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary concerning the miraculous nature of Christ’s conception (Luke 1:26-37). The “power of the most High” would come upon Mary and would “overshadow” her, as the Spirit once hovered over the waters of creation (Gen. 1:2) and as the presence of God hovered over Israel of old like an eagle over its young (Deut. 32:11).

Islamic:

E.g., Sahin Aksoy, The Beginning of Human Life and Embryos: A Philosophical and Theological Perspective, 14 Reproductive BioMedicine Online (2007), available https://www.rbmojournal.com/article/S1472-6483(10)60736-5/pdf:

In another hadith, the Prophet Muhammad said: ‘when the nutfa [zygote] has been established in the womb for forty or forty-five nights, the angel comes and says: “My Lord, will he be wretched or fortunate?” and both these things would be written.

…

In the last hadith to be mentioned here, the Prophet Muhammad said: ‘when forty nights pass after the nutfa (zygote) gets into the womb, God sends the angel and gives him the shape. Then

He creates his sense of hearing, sense of sight, his skin, his flesh, his bones and then the angel says: “My Lord, would he be male or female?”….  

Compare Badawy A. B. Khitamy, Divergent Views on Abortion and the Period of Ensoulment, 13 Sultan Qaboos University Med J. 26 (2013), at 30, available in https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616796/pdf/squmj-13-26.pdf:

The Qur’an and the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad declared the ensoulment period to be about 120 days (4 lunar months plus 10 days) computed from the moment of conception, which is equivalent to 19 weeks and one day, or 134 days from a woman’s last menstrual period.

Jewish:

The primary Jewish law perspective appears to be that life begins when the head emerges during birth. See David Feldman, Birth Control in Jewish Law (1998), at 253 (Exodus 21:22 provides a woman who miscarries due to being struck by men who fight monetary compensation, but not “life for life” as stated in Exodus 21:23). In general, however, modern Jewish scholars offer differing views by saying that the timing of ensoulment is something that belongs to the “secrets of God.”