History of human sanctity

The history of human sanctity has had a range of concepts that each attempt to deal with the question of human beginnings; at what point in human development is a human organism to be considered a human being, and therefore protected? The concept relates to contemporary issues such as abortion and stem cell research.

Overview
Ancient Spartans disapproved of abortion because of their desire to see male children live to become warriors. Nevertheless they destroyed newborn infants who had visible physical deformities.

Plato, and likewise the Stoics, held the view that ensoulment didn't happen until birth. Plato, who's views were foundational in Ancient Roman law, even promoted the view that abortion should be compulsory for women over forty. Aristotle stated a view, accepted for a short time by the Catholic Church, that abortions should happen only early in pregnancy, before certain biological processes began. He first proposed the connection between ensoulment, what he called "animation," and discernible biological properties.

Hippocrates and the Pythagoreans outright disapproved of abortion, and stated that conception marked the beginning of a human life; that the human soul was created at the time of conception. The original version of the Hippocratic oath forbids the facilitation of abortion via pessary.

Aristotle believed that males and females were ensouled at different times, males before females, according to a stereotype that they had a different degree of vigour for life. The Catholic Church, Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo held the view that fetuses were "animated" (using Aristotle's term for ensoulment) near the 40th day after conception.

Tertullian strongly opposed abortion as well as contraception: "The future of man is a man already: the whole fruit is present in the seed."

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