somewhere under the sky

abortion and the nature of the soul

in a class we have been discussing abortion and contraception. with the premise that i do believe in the soul (whatever that means-i apologize for not setting up a definition), a question of mine has been, when is the soul created? is it at conception, is it when the embryo takes on a gender, when that group of cells passes from being a group of cells into a group of human cells, when the baby leaves the womb?
i suppose in reality that the answer (if there is one) hinges on the definition of a soul. however the attempt to define soul is so daunting that i will save it for a rainy day.
on that note, i will still pursue the question of when. true to my inherited Western individualism, i previously thought of the soul as an individual-as in i, Leah, have a soul and you, reader, have your own soul and never the twain shall meet except in bodily contact.
this may be an erroneous view of the soul. consider the doctrine of reincarnation in Buddhism in the context of abortion: "a being was going to be born. for reasons judged good by the would-be parents, that birthing was stopped, but the being who would be born is put back in waiting. the 'life' that was rejected or that died through miscarriage or infant death is called a mizuko [in Japan] and parents pray for its well-being in the sacred realms to which it has been returned." (from Sacred Choices)
let's say that "soul" does not refer to my soul but instead to the collective soul, this spiritual one-ness in which we are all part. and maybe our personal souls are simply unique expressions of this collective soul. in this way, the soul of an individual would never be created, as if it weren't there and then it was; it would just always have existed.
the question is: when an embryo or fetus is aborted, what dies, what is killed? all of us eat, and therefore all of us are guilty of killing, either animal or plant. those who are upset about abortion must be upset because they see an injustice. so, what is the injustice they perceive about abortion? in other words, what is being killed by an abortion? is it a group of cells? because we do that everyday when we eat our vegetables and meatballs. or is it a soul? how is it possible to kill a soul? the perceived injustice must be, then, that this soul did not have a chance to manifest a unique expression of the Soul lived out here on earth.
in order to understand abortion, it is necessary to understand the perceived injustice about it. doing this could 1. get more people to agree, 2. help us to understand what the real argument is and 3. help us move forward in finding a solution.
because it is certainly not as simple as saying "abortion stops a beating heart," as i hope this post shows.
by the way, i used to think it was as simple as this. the more i learn, the more i see that it is not. please post views, perspectives, and responses so we can help each other understand a debate that has been recyclying the same discourse for a couple decades now.

posted by leah v @ 1:37 PM