According to the Catholic Church, do conjoined twins have two souls?
Upvote:5
This is a pretty popular question on the web 2.0 Internet forums and apparently is still relevant in web 3.0 (or whatever StackExchange is). But the Truths of the Church are still to be found on the old EWTN forums.
In the happy case where you have two distinct persons, you necessarily have two bodies (like Lake Michigan and Lake Superior are two bodies of water)
If two twins are connected physically, we still have two bodies with two individual [sic] persons and, therefore, two souls. There has to be two souls if there are two persons involved. This situation is a mistake of nature, so to speak. So we may assume that at the resurrection of the body the twins will be in an ideal state of existing each on their own.
EWTN Q and A - Dr. Richard Geraghty - 1/23/2004
However, in the sadder case, there are instances where a second body was never formed where there is no concrete evidence that a second human was ever necessarily meant to exist:
A[n unformed] body, even though living but not having a head, is not a human being. So in this situation another human being was not killed.
EWTN Q and A - Dr. Richard Geraghty - 11/17/2007
Still, given the formation of the body or bodies God still has a plan in place, the natural function of twinning didn't fully take place.
Presumably, God would know about the upcoming twinning and would place both souls in the zygote and they would share a body for a time until they are separated [sic]. It certainly shouldn't be problematic to speak of two souls sharing a "body" because we conjoined twins. In essence they have never completed the "twinning" fully to the point of becoming two separate [sic] bodies
Jimmy Akin via Judie Brown - EWTN Q and A - 06/08/2006
You don't lack a soul simply because you were born with half pinky toes (I hope not, I've got half pinky toes). But the opposite can happen too, even in the womb a body can be said to "not exist" because it was consumed (apparently as an act of healing by the rest of the cells)
In other words, the initial zygote can, under the right circumstances, dismiss a cell or group of cells that becomes that second baby (twin.) In the case of an anomaly that also occurs like the conjoined twins, we cannot say that two persons do not exist, but we can say that a circumstance has occurred [sic] which is tragic and, in the particular case you site, deadly.
Judie Brown - EWTN Q and A - 05/06/2002
So, there you have it, conjoined twins have two souls, what they do with them is between them and God.
(just in case you were wondering, the people on EWTN's forum are "Experts" not shmoe's like me)
Dr. Richard Geraghty is a professor of philosophy.
Jimmy Akin is a "noted red-headed Internet apologist"
Judie Brown is the President of the American Life League
More post
- 📝 Jakob Böhme - influence
- 📝 What is meant by the expression "living in darkness"?
- 📝 Does being Protestant imply you are also a Zionist?
- 📝 Why did John the Baptist preach repentance through water baptism and specifically how is that different than repentance through ashes and sackcloth?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, why did Jesus not name the rich man in the story of Lazarus and the rich man?
- 📝 Does the Church say that humans have two parts, ie mind and heart?
- 📝 What was the earliest Papal condemnation of slavery?
- 📝 Why keep baptismal fonts full in the Roman Catholic Church?
- 📝 Is John saying that Christ is God and eternal?
- 📝 Should a woman cover her head in Christian worship?
- 📝 Is creationism falsifiable?
- 📝 God was born of Mary - really?
- 📝 Do the acts of the flesh reveal false Christians?
- 📝 What is the Catholic Church's take on copies of Bible printed with errors?
- 📝 Which Mormon doctrines does the Bible accually teach against?
- 📝 How do Jehovah's Witnesses explain Thomas's exclamation, "My Lord and my God"?
- 📝 How did Old Testament saints show they were focused on God’s promises even though they did not know when or how their Redeemer/Messiah would appear?
- 📝 Is breaking copyright law a sin?
- 📝 When did Jesus assume human nature?
- 📝 Enemy in Matthew 5:43?
- 📝 Remit of Defender of the Bond in Catholic declaration of nullity investigations
- 📝 Why did St. Martin give half of his cloak, and didn't give the whole?
- 📝 Have any ante-Nicene writings been discovered in the past 20 years?
- 📝 What were people called who believed in the "Christ" before Jesus was born?
- 📝 Who gets to decide who is a prophet and who is not?
- 📝 What does the chaining and locking of Satan in the bottomless pit for the millennial reign accomplish?
- 📝 What is the meaning of the phrase "Entertaining Angels"?
- 📝 What's the Evangelical take on the Natural Moral Law?
- 📝 How literally do you take and universally apply what Jesus said?
- 📝 Is Luke 12:50 where Roman Catholics get the concept of baptism by blood?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, do conjoined twins have two souls?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church is it offensive to dress as a Catholic priest and perform “communion”?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, will we have physical bodies in heaven?
- 📝 Why did the Catholic Church decide to have a Bible?
- 📝 According to Roman Catholic Doctrine, what things have the power to decrease a person's time in purgatory?
- 📝 Did Pope Francis declare that according to the teaching of the Catholic Church capital punishment is intrinsically evil?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church have a contingency plan for the case that the pope and all cardinals are dead?
- 📝 According to Catholic doctrine, what effect does the Last Judgment have on those who are already in heaven?
- 📝 What rules does the Catholic Church have for venerating crosses/crucifixes on Good Friday?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church consider it sinful for couples who aren't able to conceive to have sex?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church is it sinful to address someone who is transgender by the gender they identify as?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, does purgatory have a symbol?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church have a position on slavery reparations?
- 📝 On the Catholic Perspective on the incarnation of Jesus, according to St.Thomas Aquinas: Two natures, one Person
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church have any mechanism to improve poor homilists?
- 📝 According to Catholic Church tradition, where, when, how and by whom did the devotion of the Stations of the Cross begin?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, did Jesus have faith or hope?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, do animals have free will?
- 📝 Why does the Catholic church have so many Masses throughout the week?
- 📝 According to the Church of England, if humans have free will, why do we ask for things in prayer?
- 📝 Can a baby be baptized in a Catholic Church if the mother does not have papers proving she was baptized?
- 📝 According to the morality of the Catholic Church are there any organs that are not permitted to be offered in organ transplants?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church have a list of Good Books?
- 📝 Guidelines for "becoming" a believer, according to the Catholic Church
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church is it sinful to address someone who is transgender by their biological sex?
- 📝 Do Reformed theologians understand the Catholic Church and the Papacy to have been true heirs of Peter until the Reformation?
- 📝 Why doesn't the Catholic church have prophets and apostles?
- 📝 What is meant by the statement of Our Lady to St. Dominic according to the Catholic Church
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church have a policy on how altars are to be destroyed?
- 📝 By what authority does the Catholic church have priests?