# What happens to the soul of a fetus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 9, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298 "2005-08-09T17:20:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sixball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@sixball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sixball)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/21 "2005-08-09T20:08:17Z")
By “fishing” I meant RJUNG said what I was thinking when I posed the question. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/22 "2005-08-09T20:10:35Z")
To their view, even though it gives the fetus a “go directly to heaven” Golden Wonka Ticket, it still violates the “do not kill” commandment. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/23 "2005-08-09T20:11:17Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > Yeah, our time on Earth is really just for being contestants in a _hilarious_ reality show for supreme beings to watch. Angela Dodson: I guess God has a plan for all of us. John Constantine: God’s a kid with an ant farm, lady. He’s not planning anything. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/24 "2005-08-09T20:16:37Z")
If your faith say that all people are ‘born in sin’ and thus have infant baptism, and they also claim that abortion is murder, then the babies either go to hell or to limbo. (YMMV) BUT Since many of these faiths believe that you sin in deed and in thought, and they think the fetus is (warning glurge with cheese) [floating around thinking](http://www.geocities.com/chooselife7/diary.html) , then it is possible that they have thought about sinning and are going to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/25 "2005-08-09T20:18:33Z")
> [@sixball](#): > > Even if one believes life begins at conception why is being born so vital? At conception, you aren’t even really a life; you’re just a set of instructions. It would probably be more accurate to say that life begins at implantation, when the fertilized egg sticks to the wall of the uterus and begins nine months of parasitism. Something like thirty percent of fertilized eggs don’t even make it that far; they fail to adhere or otherwise don’t develop. So if life really does begin at conception, then Heaven is knee-deep in the sludge of millions of ensouled zygotes. Raise your hand if Ew. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/26 "2005-08-09T21:16:37Z")
Now I am left wondering what happens when James Brown dies. ---
**Author:** ![pand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@pand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pand)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/27 "2005-08-10T02:04:57Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > In Catholicism, the body and soul exist with each other and neither exists without the other. The creation of a body means the creation of a soul. If the soul does not exist without the body, there is no afterlife. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/28 "2005-08-10T05:58:54Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#): > > James Brown absorbs it, just like all other dead fetus souls. He IS a Soul Man, I just didn’t realize it was that kind… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/29 "2005-08-10T08:41:20Z")
I’ve often wondered this one too; it’s not unrelated to the issue of ‘age of accountability’ in some varieties of Christianity (where an infant to young to make a informed personal commitment is pardoned), but the problems with that are rather obviously: -If God can pardon these infants, why can’t he pardon everybody (i.e. why is a personal commitment to faith the ‘only way’, when it isn’t the only way?) -Wouldn’t it make sense to humanely end the mortal lives of all infants before they are at risk of hell? I know the ‘do not kill’ thing appears to be an argument against it, but the stakes are so incredibly high that it could be argued that there is a moral imperative to commit an individual sinful act to prevent a much greater evil. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/30 "2005-08-10T10:47:58Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > At conception, you aren’t even really a life; you’re just a set of instructions. It would probably be more accurate to say that life begins at implantation, when the fertilized egg sticks to the wall of the uterus and begins nine months of parasitism. Something like thirty percent of fertilized eggs don’t even make it that far; they fail to adhere or otherwise don’t develop. > > So if life really does begin at conception, then Heaven is knee-deep in the sludge of millions of ensouled zygotes. > > Raise your hand if Ew. If you think about it, if there was no life passed on through the parents and their anscestors, there would be no conception. Life began eons ago, The word soul comes from the latin animia which means life. We speak of animation meaning movement or life. A fertilized egg is not yet a chicken, an apple blossom is not yet an apple,There is human life in a zygote (from the parents) but it is not yet a person. If you look at a zygote you would not say what a cute baby, you could say it is a potential baby. A tubal pregnacy will never become a baby and will be very dangerous for the woman. Monavis ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/31 "2005-08-10T10:54:48Z")
> [@pand](#): > > If the soul does not exist without the body, there is no afterlife. That is not quite true, every thing changes with death to what it was before,when a cat dies its body decomposes and it’s gases atoms etc. go back into the universe. even a paper if it is burned goes back. Life is a circle,it lives on life,it need other lives to exist. If nothing died we would not be able to live.Humans live off animal and plant life etc. Monavis ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/32 "2005-08-10T11:11:46Z")
[pointless hijack]Some organisms live entirely without depending on others dying; I’m thinking about bacteria that metabolise naturally-occuring minerals, so the point is sort of moot, unless bacteria have souls. ---
**Author:** ![pand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@pand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pand)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/33 "2005-08-10T17:32:03Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > That is not quite true, every thing changes with death to what it was before,when a cat dies its body decomposes and it’s gases atoms etc. go back into the universe. even a paper if it is burned goes back. Life is a circle,it lives on life,it need other lives to exist. If nothing died we would not be able to live.Humans live off animal and plant life etc. > > Monavis I agree. My response was due to a prior poster, Gigi, asserting that, to paraphrase, in Catholicism, the body and soul exist with each other and neither exists without the other. I was pointing out that if that argument were true, then there would be no afterlife, as the soul would not exist with the body gone. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/34 "2005-08-10T19:13:24Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > IMO, your soul is your “software”, that is, the information in your brain including the operating system that drives consciousness interface. If a fetus has only developed rudimentary hardware capable of running only basic-function software, then it’s a long way from having any significant data to be uploaded were it to be killed at that time. Ain’t got no soul. Excellent analogy. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/35 "2005-08-10T19:25:37Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Given that nobody has suggested a horrible/undesirable fate for the soul of an aborted fetus, does that mean that there are no negative spiritual consequences to abortion? If so, doesn’t that mean that the anti-abortionists don’t have a spiritual leg to stand on? Maybe, but you could make the same argument about the fate of the soal of week old babies, and people would have moral problems killing them anyway. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/36 "2005-08-10T19:44:44Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Given that nobody has suggested a horrible/undesirable fate for the soul of an aborted fetus, does that mean that there are no negative spiritual consequences to abortion? If so, doesn’t that mean that the anti-abortionists don’t have a spiritual leg to stand on? Couldn’t the same exact argument be made in the case of murdering your one-week-old infant? Surely it’s not damned to hell, right? God takes care of it, right? So killing them isn’t a problem. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/37 "2005-08-10T19:46:50Z")
That’s what I get for not refreshing the thread before posting - someone else posts a response to a day-old comment 20 minutes before mine - and it’s the same thought. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/38 "2005-08-10T19:51:14Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Maybe, but you could make the same argument about the fate of the soal of week old babies, and people would have moral problems killing them anyway. I’m confused; are you saying that no religion believes that newborn infants have souls? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/39 "2005-08-10T19:59:48Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I’m confused; are you saying that no religion believes that newborn infants have souls? No, but most of those religions which say that newborn infants have souls also say that, if they die, they’ll go to heaven/paradise/etc… just like those people who believe that fetuses have souls, but that if they die, they’ll go to heaven/paradise/etc. Just because you don’t believe there’s horrible or undesirable fate for the soul upon death doesn’t mean that killing the person who has that soul isn’t immoral. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298/40 "2005-08-10T20:42:45Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > If you think about it, if there was no life passed on through the parents and their anscestors, there would be no conception. Well, we do have to draw a line somewhere. Life beginning at conception, I think, as should be clear from my post above, is pretty silly. Life beginning at implantation? More reasonable. But conception is a necessary prerequisite for implantation, so you could argue the life-at-conception position. Of course, the sexual act is (usually) a prerequisite for conception, so perhaps we should say that life begins at penetration. (I know it does for me, anyway.) But then, coitus cannot cause pregnancy if the female has not entered puberty and achieved fertility. Thus we move backward, to life beginning, hypothetically, at menstruation. The only thing this line of debate proves, in my mind, is that the whole question is basically stupid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-soul-of-a-fetus/316298.md?page=3)