Another such theologian who shed some light into this debate was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD.). More than Augustine, Thomas was more concerned with the ontological status of the fetus in the early stages of pregnancy. Moreover was the concern whether there actual was a real human person from the “moment” of conception; if there is, then abortion many very well be seriously immoral even in the early stages of pregnancy. Catholic opinion held that there is a real human person from the first moment of conception, or at least that we cannot be sure that this is not the case. Thomas held the delayed hominization view because of his hylomorphism, where the human soul is the form of the human being. Thus, the human soul is to the body (hyle) like the shape or form (morphe) of a statue is to the actual statue. Thomas recognized that whatever was growing in the mother’s womb early in pregnancy was not yet a real human body; hence, it could not be animated by a human sole. We can say that the fetus at the early stages is potential for a human body and is worth virtually nothing. This can be seen when the Catholic Church adopted the hylomorphic conception of human nature at the Council of Vienne in 1312, which forbade the church to baptize any premature births, giving no reason to baptize nothing. Thomas’s key point is that the final, the human, soul that comes from the outside is from God. But the soul can only be a human soul if it animates a human body; rationality presupposes sensation and sensation presupposes sense organs. It was assumed that, even though Thomas rare mentions abortion, he opposed to it on perversity grounds in more detailed examination. (Dombrowski and Deltete, 27)

4. National Conference Catholic Bishops / United States Catholic Conference (NCCB/USCC): Partial Abortion: The Fact Sheet, April 1998 http://www.nccbuscc.org/prolife/issues/abortion/fact198.htm

In the early years of Christianity, moving away from paganism, debated over abortion existed then as it did now. Theologians throughout time debated whether abortion was morally correct by Christian standards. St. Augustine, one of the most important key theologians in Catholic history began the debate over abortion during his time. St. Augustine (354-430 AD.) began his position on abortion explaining those who have intercourse only (sola) for the wish to have children do not sin, whereas those who mix pleasure with sex, even if sex with one’s spouse, commits a sin. What he found worse than pleasure in sex was the prevention of pregnancy. He was careful to distinguish between a conceived seed (conceptus fetus) that has not yet received vitality (prius interire quam vivere) and that which has to distinguish between that which was advancing toward (human) life in the womb (aut si in untero jam vivebat) an

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