Theos-Talk Archives (January 1999 Message tl00127)

Katinka wrote:

>> [Kym wrote} Cloning has been successful in humans - and I think the soul
can enter a
>> body whether it came from a tube or a womb

>[Katinka wrote] This is a misconception. No child was yet born whithout
>coming from a mother's womb. The laboratories can recreate
>the coming together of a sperma-cell and the egg. They
>cannot recreate all the complex functions of the womb.

I believe you may have misunderstood what I was trying to say.  There are
children who have been conceived in utero and children who have been
conceived in a test tube.  Although this is a definite distinction, it
matters not, I believe to the "soul."  Perhaps it would have been clearer
if I had written "I think the soul can enter a body whether it was
CONCEIVED in a womb or a tube."  I never meant to imply that there was such
a thing as a human being matured for nine months in a test tube - as this
has not yet occurred.

But if we are going to insist on being precise - your paragraph is also
misleading - you claimed that children come from a "mother's womb."  This
is not so.  There are many couples who have a woman implanted with the
wife's egg and husband's sperm and this woman carries the baby to term for
them - this woman is NOT the "mother."

And besides, back on subject, even if and when it is possible for a person
to spend the entire gestation period in an artifical womb or in a womb not
belonging to the biological mother - again, I do not see the soul being
hindered in any way.

>(I also sent a longer e-mail on the subject, but
>this misconception asked also for a smaller reply in my
>oppinion-education in the States really needs improvement)

This statement smacks of arrogance and stereotyping.  Dallas writes from
India and some things he says I think are quacky, but I try not to assume
that ALL those from India are quacky.  I'm not sure where you write from
(Netherlands?), but I will try not assume that ALL those from your country
are arrogant.  I write from the US, but please do not chalk up my literary
or thinking errors as representative of ALL people from the US.

Kym