Overheard this on the bus: “If Christians are opposed to abortion because they think fetuses are people, how comes they don’t hold funerals for miscarriages?”
I would suppose that some of them do. I would further suppose that it’s not actually a bad idea, if the pregnancy was reasonably advanced. The grief is, I believe, rather similar to that experienced by someone losing a child that had been brought to term. To the extent that funerals are a grief-coping mechanism, people probably should hold them for miscarriages.
My favorite argument about abortion is to point out that if the soul enters the body at conception, as identical twins split after conception, this logically implies that one twin has no soul, and thus is evil. The evil twin can usually be identified by sporting a goatee.
That’s based on the unstated but incorrect premise that souls are indivisible and only distributed in whole number amounts. Anyone who’s spent time around identical twins can tell that they only have half a soul each.
Your self-congratulatory argument’s quality is just as bad as that of those against evolution. Maybe souls twin, too. Or maybe fetus twinning is caused by the need to accommodate a surplus soul. Or...
I would like to point out that my argument is against ‘the soul enters the body at conception’ not ‘there exists a soul’. If souls twin, then this provides an example where the soul enters the body after conception, proving my point.
There are plenty of beliefs in souls that do not require them entering the body at conception. Some Hindus would say that the body, like all material objects, is maya, or illusion, and only consciousness exists, and thus the question ‘does the soul enter the body at conception?’ is meaningless.
I wouldn’t say I agree with this point of view, but its a lot more reasonable.
Interesting—I had forgotten about that. If one actually assigned a non-trivial probability to the hypothesis that the soul enters the body at conception, one could do the stats to see if chimeras are more likely to exhibit multiple personality disorder!
Then again, there are plenty of jurisdictions that will charge someone with double-murder if they intentionally kill a woman they know to be pregnant (and I’m sure at least some of these jurisdictions allow abortion). Curious. Also, some do have funerals for their miscarried babies, but I have no idea whether Christians do so at higher rates.
Overheard this on the bus: “If Christians are opposed to abortion because they think fetuses are people, how comes they don’t hold funerals for miscarriages?”
I would suppose that some of them do. I would further suppose that it’s not actually a bad idea, if the pregnancy was reasonably advanced. The grief is, I believe, rather similar to that experienced by someone losing a child that had been brought to term. To the extent that funerals are a grief-coping mechanism, people probably should hold them for miscarriages.
A google search for ‘miscarriage funeral’ suggests that people do, yes, but it’s sufficiently rare that one can write articles about it.
They seem to be somewhat more standard in Japan and Taiwan.
My favorite argument about abortion is to point out that if the soul enters the body at conception, as identical twins split after conception, this logically implies that one twin has no soul, and thus is evil. The evil twin can usually be identified by sporting a goatee.
That’s based on the unstated but incorrect premise that souls are indivisible and only distributed in whole number amounts. Anyone who’s spent time around identical twins can tell that they only have half a soul each.
Of course—this explains identical twin telepathy!
Your self-congratulatory argument’s quality is just as bad as that of those against evolution. Maybe souls twin, too. Or maybe fetus twinning is caused by the need to accommodate a surplus soul. Or...
I would like to point out that my argument is against ‘the soul enters the body at conception’ not ‘there exists a soul’. If souls twin, then this provides an example where the soul enters the body after conception, proving my point.
There are plenty of beliefs in souls that do not require them entering the body at conception. Some Hindus would say that the body, like all material objects, is maya, or illusion, and only consciousness exists, and thus the question ‘does the soul enter the body at conception?’ is meaningless.
I wouldn’t say I agree with this point of view, but its a lot more reasonable.
Or genetic chimeras, who are fused fraternal twin embryos—have they got two souls?
Interesting—I had forgotten about that. If one actually assigned a non-trivial probability to the hypothesis that the soul enters the body at conception, one could do the stats to see if chimeras are more likely to exhibit multiple personality disorder!
Maybe one of them is dead? The one that didn’t form the brain, I guess.
Although, if you can have a soul at conception, the brain must be unnecessary … hmm, transplant patients …
This actually happens, sometimes. Perinatal hospice is also a thing.
Then again, there are plenty of jurisdictions that will charge someone with double-murder if they intentionally kill a woman they know to be pregnant (and I’m sure at least some of these jurisdictions allow abortion). Curious. Also, some do have funerals for their miscarried babies, but I have no idea whether Christians do so at higher rates.
Data point: I have, in fact, been to such a funeral. However, it wasn’t official.