Now that parliament has decided to decriminalise abortion, it is interesting to see what the ancients made of the matter. The question for them was, as for us – when did the foetus become ‘human’? The answer was when it developed a psukhê (‘soul’).
Some Greek philosophers argued that the foetus was fully ‘ensouled’ from the moment of conception, and abortion was therefore wrong. Others asserted it was only ensouled at birth. The ‘gradualists’ thought the foetus took between 36 and 50 days to became human (active kicking was a good sign). Aristotle (d. 322 BC) argued that the embryo became human when it had developed four ‘capacities’ in the following sequence – nutrition, motion, perception/sensation and finally reason. That took the male 40 days, the female 90. Aristotle’s position was extremely influential.
When it came to the actual practice, doctors wanted nothing to do with abortion unless the woman’s life was at risk (the famous Oath forbade doctors from ‘giving an abortifacient’). Hippocrates was well aware of what such painful and dangerous procedures entailed (‘a foetus cannot be aborted without violence’). Doubtless women were the best judges of the matter, and were acquainted with the drugs, vaginal pessaries, medications and physical exercises that might do the business, but the existence of paid abortionists was no secret. One would love to have known the views of the famous female doctor Agnodice (4th C BC), who had to disguise herself as a man in order to practise.
Although what the Bible has to say on the matter offers no guidance at all (see the bizarre scenario at Exodus 21:22-4), Christians were rigorously opposed to abortion. Though they may well have been influenced by the Jewish instruction to ‘go forth and multiply’ – probably for demographic reasons? – over time they seem to have adopted a 40-day ‘gradualist’ position with which St Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) agreed. But in 1869 Pope Pius IX ended all debate, asserting that ‘ensoulment’ occurred on conception.
What makes this ancient debate so interesting is that neither Greeks nor Romans had any problems at all about exposing children at birth…
Comments