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Animatio: a history of ideas on the beginning of personhood

  • Michael Obladen EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 4, 2017
Journal of Perinatal Medicine
From the journal Journal of Perinatal Medicine Volume 46 Issue 4

Abstract

The onset of individual human life has fascinated thinkers of all cultures and epochs, and the history of their ideas may enlighten an unsettled debate. Aristotle attributed three different souls to the subsequent developmental stages. The last, the rational soul, was associated with the formed fetus, and entailed fetal movements. With some modifications, the concept of delayed ensoulment – at 30, 42, 60, or 90 days after conception – was adopted by several Christian Church Fathers and remained valid throughout the Middle Ages. The concept of immediate ensoulment at fertilization originated in the 15th century and became Catholic dogma in 1869. During the Enlightenment, philosophers began to replace the rational soul with the term personhood, basing the latter on self-consciousness. Biological reality suggests that personhood accrues slowly, not at a specific date during gestation. Requirements for personhood are present in the embryo, but not in the preembryo before implantation: anatomic substrate; no more totipotent cells; decreased rate of spontaneous loss. However, biological facts alone cannot determine the embryo’s moral status. Societies must negotiate and decide the degree of protection of unborn humans. In the 21st century, fertilization, implantation, extrauterine viability and birth have become the most widely accepted landmarks of change in ontological status.

Keywords: Embryogenesis; ensoulment; ethics; fetal life; fetus; history; human; personhood
Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Michael Obladen, Department of Neonatology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany, Tel.: +49 30 450566122, Fax: +49 30 450566922

Acknowledgments

This paper required the extensive study of classical Latin texts. The author would like to thank Dr. Angela Karasch, University Library Freiburg, for access to the ancient sources; Sieghard Irrgang, Kassel, for substantial and patient help with the translations; Prof. François Bougart and Madame Véronique Trémault, Institut de la Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (IRHT), Paris, for Figure 4; and Carole Cürten, University of Freiburg, for editing the English.

  1. Author’s statement

  2. Conflict of interest: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  3. Material and methods: Informed consent: Informed consent has been obtained from all individuals included in this study.

  4. Ethical approval: The research related to human subject use has complied with all the relevant national regulations, and institutional policies, and is in accordance with the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration, and has been approved by the authors’ institutional review board or equivalent committee.

  5. Funding: The author received no funding.

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Received: 2016-12-9
Accepted: 2017-1-30
Published Online: 2017-3-4
Published in Print: 2018-5-24

©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/jpm-2016-0404
Keywords for this article
Embryogenesis; ensoulment; ethics; fetal life; fetus; history; human; personhood

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Maternal medicine: an evolving discipline
  4. Corner of Academy
  5. Pregnancy after malignant disease – challenges and possibilities
  6. Review articles
  7. Animatio: a history of ideas on the beginning of personhood
  8. Expectant management of caesarean scar ectopic pregnancy: a systematic review
  9. Highlight articles
  10. Maternal outcomes in first and second trimester termination of pregnancy: which are the risk factors?
  11. A preliminary study of uterine scar tissue following cesarean section
  12. Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (Ronald Asherson syndrome) and obstetric pathology
  13. Comparison of healthcare utilization and outcomes by gestational diabetes diagnostic criteria
  14. Adverse pregnancy outcomes and inherited thrombophilia
  15. Effect of female genital cutting performed by health care professionals on labor complications in Egyptian women: a prospective cohort study
  16. Letters to the Editor
  17. Effect of female genital cutting performed by health care professionals on labor complications in Egyptian women: methodological concerns
  18. Reply to: Effect of female genital cutting performed by health care professionals on labor complications in Egyptian women: methodological concerns
  19. Short communication
  20. Maternal plasma LPCAT 1 mRNA correlates with lamellar body count
  21. Original articles
  22. Experimental neonatal hypoxia ischemia causes long lasting changes of oxidative stress parameters in the hippocampus and the spleen
  23. Altered thymocyte and T cell development in neonatal mice with hyperoxia-induced lung injury
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