By P. Fernando Pascual, LC
Discussions about the respect owed to human embryos need to be accompanied by reflections offered by philosophical anthropology regarding human dignity.
For centuries, philosophy has considered the human being as endowed with a spiritual soul, which has a unique origin (some affirm that it is created directly by God) and an eternal destiny.
There have been ancient and modern thinkers who have denied such spirituality, who have argued that man is simply material, a product of the casual aggregation of atoms, the result of evolutionary processes without a plan or purpose.
In anthropologies that consider the human being as simply material, or as an animal that would not have a higher dignity than other animals, discussions about the embryo easily lead to the denial of its dignity, a dignity that adults would also lack.
On the other hand, anthropologies that consider the existence of a spiritual soul, a constitutive dimension that makes humans radically different from animals, recognize that embryos have a dignity that deserves respect.
Ongoing debates about abortion, artificial fertilization, cloning, cannot ignore the question of what it means to exist as human beings. Because only if we adequately answer that question can we then address the respect each person deserves, from conception to death.
Therefore, anthropology occupies a key position in the numerous discussions about what that initial moment of all human existence means: the moment of conception, thanks to two specialized cells, an egg and a sperm, which when properly united allow the beginning of the existence of a child who has the same dignity as their parents and other human beings.
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