One Soul Or Two?

When I saw this graphic, I knew I had to share it. I actually raise this issue in a number of my classes, to highlight the difficult questions that are often simply ignored by those who use phrases such as “life begins at conception” as though they were indisputable. Life is present long before conception, and consciousness – if that involves a brain – is not there until well after. And so, far from being a clear-cut matter, the question of when we should speak of a “person” who has rights and so on, is ambiguous, and while we must draw dividing lines for legal reasons – as we do between adults and minors – those lines are drawn arbitrarily (some people are mature before they turn 18, and others remain immature even beyond that age).